cut the head off the snake
by Invincible Shadow
Summary: when eighteen-year-old, post-war Sakura is thrown back into her tiny, pre-Academy body, she makes a decision. she'd had a childhood once already, and this time, she's more interested in Not Dying when the inevitable shit hits the proverbial fan. so she will work harder, care less, kill more, and smile when she's done. (Time Traveller!Sakura, ROOT!Sakura, Mokuton!Sakura)
1. Chapter 1

**new story alert!**

 **i blame all the incredible authors whose works i read for getting suckered into timetravel!Sakura (sprx77, Katlou303, writer168, jaylene, aoutrance and blackkat, I'm looking at you)**

 **Mokuton!Sakura was born after a lot of tumbling, mainly inspired by postscratch, tiredgaykakashi and professorsparklepants, as well as sandorclegane's art (v cool btw, check it out) and, cause, honestly? fuck canon with a cactus. SasuNaru can be reincarnations of a goddesses' sons but Sakura can't have Wood Release cause she'd be ~overpowered~? oh boo-fuckin-hoo. #blocked**

 **also, experimenting with present-tense narration for the first time ever, so apologies for any tense-slipups. they will happen. #oopsinadvance**

* * *

Sakura jerks awake with a gasp.

She's drenched in cold sweat and shivering, the memory of a haze of suffocating orange chakra and a searing pain in her lower back and left breast making her swallow back bile.

Then, she freezes.

Her chakra is gone.

Well, not _gone,_ the not-yet-panicking part of her mind corrects – while the rest is firmly committed to hyperventilating – but tiny. Dormant. Untouched.

She opens her eyes and raises her arm and –

 _Small._

No callouses, no bloodied, ripped off nails, no torn-up cuticles or silvery scars. Just a small hand, with pale, unblemished skin, and short, untrained, clumsy fingers.

Sakura's breath catches in her throat. The pastel yellow walls of her bedroom begin to spin.

She'd been eighteen, fresh out of the Fourth Shinobi War. She'd been on the frontlines for over a year, had surpassed Tsunade, had mastered both of the blonde's legendary jutsus, had stood with Naruto and Sasuke as their _equal_ while they faced a _goddess_.

And yes, they'd won the war, but they'd lost _so many_. Yet, after Kaguya had been dealt with, everyone just… went back to 'normal'. Hardly any time was spent grieving, mourning those they'd lost. But Sakura couldn't just _let go._ She'd lost too many faces she'd known and held dear, lost Ino, Sai, Genma, Shikaku, Kiba, Yamato, Neji, Inoichi, Tenten, Shizune – and nobody seemed to _care_. Kakashi, grief-leaden and traumatised beyond belief had been tasked with Hokageship, a job Sakura knew he'd fulfil to the best of his ability, but one that nobody who'd really loved him should've asked of him. Tsunade had retired, dropped her age-concealing illusion and focused on rebuilding the hospital and rehoming civilians, and while Sakura didn't begrudge either of them their decisions, it meant nobody saw her composure slowly shattering. So when Naruto and Sasuke decided to fight, because the fact that they'd just fought in a war didn't seem to matter to their egos, Sakura had been tired. So she'd followed. And when they'd pulled out their respective end-all moves – ones she'd known would total the landscape around them and, if they were lucky, severely injure both of them – she saw an out. She saw an end to the play-pretend they'd all been living in.

 _(So she stepped between them.)_

She shakes off the memory, but clings to the facts: _eighteen, a young woman, a shinobi, a medic, a student, a legend, and now–!_

A _child._

She rolls out of bed, her breathing coming in ragged gasps, falls on the floor and staggers to the window, and tries to wrench it open. It moves slowly, and it _hurts_ as her palms dig into the sharp wooden frame, splinters coming off and lodging themselves into her delicate skin, but eventually – when she's panting from exertion and her arms are shaking – it _gives._

In her panic, her practiced leap out of the window turns into a stumble, and she trips over the frame, her legs too short to reach over the window sill and she falls through and has two terrifying seconds where she's freefalling, but gravity does its work and the ground comes up all too soon. Sakura hits the grass in a graceless tangle of limbs, feels the impact of jar her fragile bones and wonders how barely five metres can feel like tumbling from the Valley of the End.

She feels tears spring to her eyes when she pulls herself up and her left arm is burning, the normally straight forearm forming an obtuse angle.

 _Broken,_ the sober part of her mind catalogues, even as the rest of her is still busy having a panic attack, _compound fracture._

She stumbles through her garden and crawls out through the gap in the hedge, and then she's running, keeping to the shadows and gasping in desperate breaths through her mouth even as her throat feels clogged with the promise of tears and black spots are dancing across her vision.

Eventually, she reaches the communal park, deserted and decidedly haunted-looking so late in the night, and makes a bee-line for the treehouse, dazedly climbing up the ladder until she's surrounded by four wooden walls and comforted by the fake feeling of security the cover provides.

Then, she breaks down.

She cries, ugly and loud and desperate because she's somehow _back in time._ She's small, probably pre-Academy judging by the fact that her chakra hadn't even responded when she called for it, much less rose up automatically to cushion her fall when she jumped out of the window.

She cries and cries and cries, and eventually, she runs out of tears.

All she feels is numb and tired, and the ache of her broken arm is there, but the mess in her head manages to reduce it to background noise.

She's maybe… four? Five? Probably pre-Academy, and _definitely_ pre-Ino, since her red ribbon was nowhere in sight. She looks at her body and feels a pinprick of fear crest at the bottom of her skull and slide down her spine in a shiver; she's so _small. (vulnerable, useless, defenceless, civilian-!)_

Eventually her panic abates, and the throb of her arm becomes louder. Sakura takes a deep breath and rises to her feet, shivering once again, this time from the cold. She absently notices that she's barefoot, and her sheep-patterned pyjamas are most definitely not adequate protection from Konoha's late autumn nights.

She looks down at her arm and sighs. _Hospital it is,_ she decides grimly. She makes her way to the ladder, then pauses and eyes the slide. _How long has it been…?_ She wonders absently, and when her brain catches up, she's already moving, sitting down and pushing off. The whoosh of air as she slides down eases the pain in her heart and she feels the beginnings of a smile pull at her mouth, and when she stands up, she feels slightly lighter.

The trek to the hospital is uneventful; Sakura keeps to the shadows and skirts past the mouths of dark alleys and drunk singing, and eventually, she finds herself in the reception of the A&E department, and the quiet reminds her of the few graveyard shifts she'd pulled back –

 _Back then._

She swallows.

There's only two other people in the waiting room, a dozing shinobi attached to an IV drip, and an elderly civilian holding an icepack to his head. Sakura walks up to the receptionist's desk and has to stand a bit away so she can actually see and be seen once the woman looks up.

"Excuse me, miss?" she says and immediately hates how high and quiet her voice is, but it serves its purpose; the woman startles and looks up, then immediately down. Her eyes widen.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaims, and Sakura winces at the volume. "I'm so sorry sweet-pea, were you waiting long? Where's your mama? What happened?" she bombards Sakura with questions, and inwardly, Sakura's medic-self berates the woman for her unprofessionalism.

"N-no, ma'am." She denies. "I fell out of bed and hurt my arm." The white lie slips out with nary a thought, and she shows off her broken arm for good measure and then adds, "And I didn't want to wake my mom. I came here myself."

She sees the receptionist's eyes widen at that, and she stands up and hops over the desk, crouching beside Sakura's small form. "Oh, sugar, let me take you to the X-Ray department, okay? The doctors are going to quickly scan your arm and set it, and then you'll have to wear a cast for a few weeks while your arm heals, but we could make it colourful! How about pink to match that pretty hair of yours, hm?" the nurse rambles, and Sakura knows she should be soothed by the explanation because she's, for all intents and purposes, a _child,_ but all it does is raise her hackles because she always hated being talked down to, damn it. She could recite the procedure for dealing with broken bones in her _sleep!_

But she bites back the anger and the bitterness and lets the receptionist lead her away, smiles and waves goodbye when she leaves and suffers through the x-rays and the wait for the results. The doctors seem alarmed when she says she's alone, but they're easily bought by her teary explanation of not wanting to wake her mom.

 _Brave girl,_ they tell her, _such a considerate daughter,_ and it stings and burns, rancid in her throat but all she does is smile and duck her head. And when she's led away to have her arm set and put in a cast, she doesn't register that she'll be put under anaesthetic until they're wheeling over the tray with the mask.

She starts to struggle, because the last thing she wants is to be out and in her head for an undisclosed amount of time, but the doctors soothe her and gently try to pin her flailing limbs, and someone expertly secures the elastic around her head and pulls the mask over her mouth and nose.

"Count to ten." They tell her.

 _I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want-!_

She passes out.

..

When she wakes, her arm is immobile and in a garishly pink cast, and she's lying in a bed far softer than she remembers from _her_ hospital. The clock on the wall reads _6am_ and Sakura desperately tries to remember what time her parents left for work. It would be difficult to explain how she ended up in the hospital if the front door was still locked, and she didn't exactly want her first interaction with her parents – _alivealivealive! –_ to be full of lies.

She slips out of bed and pads down the corridor of the paediatric ward, and then down to main reception. It's busier now, more nurses bustling around and more people in the waiting room, but the receptionist is still the same.

"Good morning." She greets quietly and waves when the woman glances at her. "Thank you for your help, nurse-san. Can I go home now? I don't want my parents to worry."

"Sakura-chan!" the woman greets, and Sakura absently wonders how long she spent looking for her medical records with only her appearance and approximate age to go on. "Are you sure? We could send someone to notify your parents of where you are!"

"No, thank you." Sakura demurs, toeing the line between insistent and rude and fighting with her rising irritation. "I feel better and I'd like to see my parents before they go to work."

The receptionist caves at last, even though Sakura sees she's still reluctant, and at last she's free to go, still in her pyjamas and now bearing a ridiculous cast in a shade of pink so obnoxious it makes her hair look tame in comparison.

She makes her way home, crawling in through the same gap in the hedge she left by, and stands under her window, staring at the wall with a frown.

The front door is locked, and while breaking in through the window was child's play to adult-Sakura, Sakura as she is now lacks both the tools and the dexterity to make it work.

She frowns at her wall, aware what she needs to do but somewhat hesitant, then she sighs and concentrates.

Her chakra is there, sure as anything, and while the pool is _depressingly_ shallow, her control seems to have translated and as she puts her foot against the wall, she knows she's got the exact amount of chakra she needs in it. It's jarring, seeing her foot against the wall, because it's _so small,_ and in her original timeline, she didn't even attempt the exercise until she was _twelve_ , in Wave and living each day in fear of Zabuza, her first bogeyman. Still, she makes her way up the wall, slowly, because for all that she's confident in her control, arrogance and rushing ahead had always been her teammates' trademarks, not hers.

She crawls in through the still open window, her small stature for once helping her instead of inhibiting as she manoeuvres and squeezes through despite her broken arm. She grabs a random book from her shelf and makes her way downstairs, creeping down the stairs and curling up on the sofa, content to wait till her parents get up to start the day and spin her little sob story then.

She opens her book and pretends to read, while inwardly, she plans.

The ache of losing half of her precious people is still too fresh in her mind. She doesn't think she can bear seeing everyone again, not as they were in the Academy, innocent and boisterous and with faces lined with baby-fat.

But she needs to make a start on her shinobi career. Perhaps not officially, because 'child genius' isn't a title she particularly wants, but enough to be prepared for what will come after. Better prepared, at least, than she was originally. Prepared for Orochimaru and Pein and Danzo and-

She freezes, mental cogs grounding to a halt at the thought.

Danzo.

Who did she know who was after talented, nameless children, who would help her get strong – even if it was only for his gain – and who was instrumental to the shitstorm that went on in her teens? And if she manages to get close, to find evidence, she could bring damning evidence to the Sandaime, evidence that could, hopefully, get rid of Danzo all that much sooner.

 _And save Sai._

Her breath catches in her throat once more, and she absently notes that she's clutching her book in a white-knuckled grip. She knows what she must do. And she knows she cannot fail, cannot falter.

A lance of pain shoots through her when she thinks of what she's about to do to her parents, but she knows her success is infinitely more important than the happiness of two civilians.

 _It is time,_ she thinks grimly, mercilessly quashing any guilt that tries to rise up, _to get noticed by ROOT._

* * *

 **an arguably slightly different take on timetraveller!Sakura but hey ;) as always, tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**i'm honestly blown away by the positive response to the first chapter 3 thank y'all so much!**

 **this one is honestly a filler, and basically a training montage *cue dramatic music***

 **as for the engineering of Mokuton... i'm citing creative liberty and 'fuck-canon-i-do-what-i-want'. and Narutopedia, for providing me with the line "It is made up of techniques that mix earth-based chakra in one hand and water-based chakra in the other to create wood as well as various plants, from simple seeds to even flowering trees." when talking about Wood Release. needless to say, i took that line and kinda, uh, ran with it. far.**

 **to anyone expecting medic!Sakura to make a return... oops. #sorrynotsorry**

* * *

Sakura spends the next week at home, getting in touch with her chakra.

Her parents had fawned over her when they saw the cast on her arm, had gently berated her for not waking either of them up when she 'fell out of bed', and then largely left her to her own devices while they went to work.

All in all, it was about what Sakura had expected.

Now, as she sits cross-legged on the rug in her room, shoulders loose and eyes closed, she feels the gentle hum of her chakra as she stretches out her coils like plasticine and smiles. Meditation had been something Shizune had suggested, once upon a time, as a non-intensive way of increasing her chakra supply.

Bearing in mind she's now four and has plans of not only infiltrating, but _surviving_ ROOT, she cannot afford to let her tiny puddle of chakra _stay_ a puddle.

At two in the afternoon, like clockwork, when she knows her elderly next-door neighbour is settling in for her afternoon nap, Sakura, also like clockwork, clambers out of her window and allows herself to stick her feet on the wall and relishes the familiar feeling of being parallel to the ground. She jogs around, from her window, to the balcony door, then right to the top of the house and back again, until she feels the tell-tale wooziness that comes from scraping at the bottom of her reserves. Every day, she manages to last a few dozen seconds longer, and that, more than anything, makes her smile.

It's been a while since she'd been able to see herself progress so fast. She supposes starting from nothing while actually having an idea of how she should proceed this time has its advantages.

She crawls back into her room and stretches, then treks downstairs to fix herself up a reasonably hefty lunch. Sakura thanks the heavens for being able to start her chakra training as a child this time – she can fully exhaust her reserves every day, and not feel a thing in the morning. The headaches, muscle aches and general grogginess of her teenage years are a thing of the past.

Sakura keeps to that routine for two weeks, until she can run around the outside wall of her house for ten minutes and not feel woozy, and her reserves are, by her approximation, around a third of the reserves of her genin self.

Satisfied, the next day Sakura leaves the house with a swimming costume underneath her dress and a towel, a sandwich, and a plastic bag in her rucksack. She finds a stream, as removed and isolated from both, shinobi and civilians, as she can and drops her pack. Her cast-covered arm is wrapped carefully in the plastic bag, and her dress gets thrown haphazardly next to her bag. Sakura smiles, steels herself, steps on the water –

– and falls right through.

She sputters, surfaces, and awkwardly clambers back onto the bank.

 _Okay, that was ambitious._ She thinks wryly, and blows wet hair out of her face. She spends the next ten minutes on the very edge of the bank, holding onto a protruding root for stability as she tries to make her feet stand on the water without falling through. _Different centre of gravity so different distribution of chakra is necessary. This isn't about control, this is physics._

Eventually, she gets the distribution right, and feels confident enough to let go of the root and stand properly. She wobbles, but manages to stay upright. It's when she tries to take a step that it goes wrong, and she suddenly forgets the correct distribution and defaults back to what had been automatic for so long, and not all that long ago. Naturally, she falls.

 _Not eighteen anymore!_ She snarls inwardly. _That time is gone! Get your act together, damn it!_

She manages to get it right eventually and feels a curl of satisfaction in her gut. It had taken far too long for her tastes, but still less than it had the first time around.

She comes back to the stream every day for two weeks, until her reserves grow to half that of genin-Sakura, and the new chakra distribution becomes her automatic response.

In the last two weeks of being plaster-bound, Sakura works on her conditioning.

She starts with stretches and a short run and builds on them. She's not going to try to bulk up _as a four year old,_ but speed, stamina and flexibility are harmless as far as exercises go, and are something every child has, to some extent.

She's just going to make sure she has more than most.

Sakura makes sure to always be back before her parents, so she can shower and start on dinner and plan the tales she's going to spin about the book she's 'read' or the children she'd met at the park, or the cute dog she'd gotten to pet. (the last one is sometimes true)

The guilt of lying to her parents day in, day out hardly registers.

She's sure the relief on her face is comical when her cast finally gets removed, if Mebuki's laughter is anything to go by.

"Was it really that bad?" her mother teases as they leave the hospital, hand in hand because Sakura is suddenly _small_ and _needs parental guidance._

"The worst!" she agrees, quashing the automatic wince at the squeakiness of her voice, and pouts. "It itched and I couldn't shower prop'ly and it made reading difficult!" and when Mebuki laughs, the vice around Sakura's heart eases, if only a little.

She plays up the childishness for her mother, aware that the woman is going to be robbed of her only child soon, if things go to plan. The least she can do for Haruno Mebuki is pretend to be her innocent, civilian daughter for another few months.

She has experience with play-pretend, after all.

Once she's free of the cast, the possibilities for what she can work on next seem limitless. She has half an average genin's chakra pool and the control of a jounin to work with – together, they bring her overall proficiency with her chakra and what she can do with it to about that of a low chunin.

Sakura starts herself off on the Academy Three, and smiles at the nostalgia that rises with the memory of her _first_ time learning them.

Her first henge as a four year old is into her eighteen year old self, and she studies her expression in her bathroom mirror, door locked _just in case_. The exhaustion, war-weariness and grief are writ deep into the lines on her face, and even her resting expression looks a step away from giving in to despair. Those lines are absent on her current body, and though her eyes could betray her, Sakura has experience keeping certain emotions and expressions at bay.

 _Thinking of it now, Inner seems conspicuously absent._ She muses, and drops the transformation, suddenly staring at the rim of the sink instead of the mirror. _Man, the height difference is a worse trip than that time Kotetsu brought brownies into the HQ._

Sakura devotes two weeks to each of the Three: she runs through katas and stretches under henge, cycling through faces she knows won't be known around the Village yet, races with her bunshin, and does Kawarimi until she can orient herself in the new position within less than a second. She whittles down the hand-seals she needs for each of them, from four or three to one or two; by the end of the six weeks, her bunshin only need the Tiger seal, while she does henge with Ram. She keeps two of the original four of Kawarimi, Tiger and Snake, the first and the last, because it is the closest to Space-Time manipulation out of the Three, and the most likely to go wrong if she takes a shortcut.

 _(she is not_ that _arrogant. yet.)_

Originally, she never really gave much thought to the Academy Three, beyond learning them to graduate and confusing Ino with bunshin in the Preliminaries.

Her mistake.

She remembers Kakashi thoroughly whooping Sasuke's post-Orochimaru, post-Itachi, post-Rinnegan, post-literal-reincarnation-of-a-spirit-and-the-mother-of-all-power-ups ass using only the Academy Three and a kunai.

It is one of her fonder memories.

Therefore, she can hardly bring herself to regret spending six weeks on something she _knows_ she could do in her sleep. Kakashi himself was testament to how far the basics could take you if you used them well.

Three months after landing in her four year old body, Sakura has the reserves of her old genin self, can walk on water, run through the stretches and katas Tsunade had taught her, and has an arguably greater mastery of the Academy Three than she had as an adult.

It's good, the progress she's made. Immensely satisfying too, when she remembers that she's at the same level after three months of serious training that she was after six years in the Academy.

But it's still not enough.

It's not enough to catch Danzo's attention. Not enough to be noticed by ROOT without doing anything drastic to out herself as a 'genius'. She's a skilled four year old, a civilian prodigy, but realistically little different from some Clan kids. Sasuke's brother could probably kick her around, the extra half-decade of experience and living through a war on her side be damned.

She needs something special. Something nobody else could do. Something rare or extinct or so venerated nobody would dare–

Sakura freezes.

' _Everybody always raves about my grandfather's Wood Release, how it's such a unique kekkei genkai, an extinct nature transformation, all that jazz.'_ She remembers Tsunade saying, after a few too many drinks even by her standards. _'But it's not. It wasn't. A kekkei genkai, that is. At least not properly. It was just insane control, but one he was born with.'_ She remembers echoing 'control?' and the wry smile Tsunade had offered her. _'Yeah. He mixed Water chakra in one hand and Earth in the other, and used his chakra as the life-force. Everybody who's attempted to recreate it needed his DNA because nobody, not Orochimaru, not Obito, and certainly not Madara could even dream of that level of chakra control.'_ The _look_ Tsunade had levelled her with was far too assessing and calculating for her inebriated state. _'You could do it, I think. They're your elements and god knows your control is better than mine. Bring back honour to my grandfather's technique.'_

This is it.

Sakura lets out a breathy laugh, suddenly exhilarated. She has the vote of confidence of the _granddaughter of the God of Shinobi himself._

She cannot fail.

* * *

Over the next few months, Sakura falls into a routine.

She wakes up early, stretches and goes downstairs to eat breakfast with her parents as they prepare for work. She waves them off and gets dressed, grabs a meal she'd prepared earlier in the week from the fridge and goes to train. She works solely on elemental ninjutsu.

She builds up an arsenal she never had as _Haruno Sakura, Godaime's apprentice and Head of Konoha Hospital,_ works and works and _works_ because for the first time, she can devote her entire _days_ to training.

Once a week, Sakura takes the tin of 'spending money' her parents set out for her and goes shopping for high-calorie, high-protein foods. She buys pasta and grains and organ meats and eggs and avocado and sea vegetables and nuts and beans and everything the nutritionist in her knows her body needs with how much stress and activity she's putting it through, and spends an entire day cooking. She boxes the pre-cooked meals in Tupperware and hides her stash at the bottom shelf of the fridge, under a low level notice-me-not genjutsu that her civilian parents have little chance of ever dispelling.

When her fifth birthday rolls around, six months since she landed in the past, she's built her way up to B-Ranks, with four techniques for each element. She takes no small amount of pride in the fact that she has more techniques under her belt than genin-Sasuke had, and that alone is enough to allow her to sit through her parents' birthday celebrations and play the happy-go-lucky five year old she is supposed to be with minimal exasperation.

To her surprise, her parents get her clothes. Boyish clothes. _Training_ clothes.

"You're growing like a reed, Sakura-chan." Her dad laughs, and Sakura is inwardly surprised he noticed. "Plus, we thought the fact that your collection of dresses is gathering dust might be a hint you want a change of style?"

She blinks, thrown for a second, and then it clicks.

Her parents see her in her pyjamas in the morning, and after her shower in the evening. By then, she's dressed in comfortable clothes, too tired to bother with cute dresses or accessories. She walks around the house almost exclusively in shorts and leggings and neutral-coloured, plain tops, because that's what she _used to do_ , whenever she had any off days from the hospital.

Only she's five, not fifteen, a civilian instead of a harried med-nin and shinobi, and as far as her parents are aware, she goes to the park every day and plays with other children and has _no reason_ to not have the energy to care about _coordinating colours._

(This time, the wave of guilt is harder to ignore.)

Sakura swallows. Smiles.

"Thank you, okaa-san, otou-san." She manages, throat oddly tight. "You were right. I love them."

When her parents flash her twin, brilliant smiles, she thanks the heavens they think their daughter's change in appearance is due to her having developed a _tomboy side,_ and not the fact that she's training to be a pint-sized assassin.

It's a good cover though, the one her parents accidentally provide her with. She dresses in muted colours and trousers even on weekends now, and she knows the ease and relief she feels must somehow radiate off of her because her parents smile at her whenever they catch eyes and she smiles back and it's _easier,_ now. One less layer to the play-pretend. And once she asks to cut her hair, something she never quite had the guts to try _before_ , her mother only titters a little before she takes her to the salon, and Sakura sits in the far-too-big chair and watches the hairdresser work until only inch-long tufts of pink remain.

The smile she gives her mother as they leave feels like her truest one yet.

Two weeks later, Sakura has devoured every book, scroll or notebook the library has on offer about Wood Release, as well as every history book that so much as _mentions_ Senju Hashirama. She visits the library henged as Shizune, confident in the fact that her old senpai is yet-unknown to Konohagakure ninja, and takes out books under a false name. For a Village of killers trained to look _underneath the underneath_ , she somehow slips through, not even registering on the radar.

Seven months in, she sits in the forest with one hand pressed to the ground and one dipped in a puddle she'd made, and tries to concentrate on splitting her chakra. Water-natured chakra in the puddle-hand, Earth-natured in the other.

It takes weeks.

To deal with her frustration, she henges into Shizune again and buys weapons; kunai, shuriken, senbon and throws in a tanto for good measure, and vents by carving crude targets into the trees.

Her aim starts off horrendous.

The muscle-memory she relied on in her old timeline is gone. Her reach is not the same. Her height pisses her off.

Within the first two weeks, her aim improves. Drastically.

 _(yes, she's fucking frustrated)_

Nine months in, she can split her chakra and keep it separated for five minutes.

Sakura takes a week's break to prepare herself to actually bring them _back together._

At the end of her self-appointed vacation, she's back in the forest, chakra separated into Water and Earth, and a single rose bud lies on the ground in front of her, mocking her.

Slowly, carefully, she brings her hands together and laces her fingers into the Snake seal, and concentrates on the bud in front of her. She lets the chakra come together, makes sure not to lose track of either thread, and weaves it into a net of _intent_ formed of two synched, yet distinct energies. She holds her breath, lets her chakra go, and wills the bud to bloom.

It does.

* * *

Sakura wishes she could say that after that little triumph, it gets easier.

It doesn't.

It takes _weeks_ to make even the barest half-step towards progress. A month later, she can make a flower bloom at her feet without first having the bulb, or even the seed.

Two months later and eleven months after landing in this world, the first sapling sprouts beside her, and she feeds it chakra and watches as it grows into a young cherry blossom tree, only a little taller than her.

But progress is still slow.

She's grasping at straws, playing entirely by ear, and there are no guidelines, no textbooks, no tutors she can use. She's _remaking a kekkei genkai_ by breaking it into its most base elements and using her _chakra control_ to piece it back together.

A year and a half after waking up as a four year old, around her sixth birthday, she can call up a wooden wall, a protective dome, and send the roots at imaginary attackers. Her long-distance control, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

But it's of little consequence, because in early June, a month before the first Academy application forms are sent out, Sakura feels a familiar corrosive, corrupt chakra at the edges of the clearing she uses as her training ground.

 _Danzo._

There'd been flickers of suppressed signatures around her for the last few days, ones she was confident belonged to ROOT agents for the simple lack of any undercurrent of emotion in the chakra. Now, the big bad wolf himself had come to see.

Sakura spends the next few evenings spoiling her parents. She cooks extravagant meals for when they come back from work, smiles frequently and makes sure to wear the necklace they gave her for her sixth birthday. If they notice the change, they don't say anything and Sakura is grateful. She persuades them into movie night one evening, and holds the laughter and hugs that are passed around close to her heart.

She memorises her parents' faces and scents and how it feels to have their arms wrapped around her.

The next time she goes to train, she's got a small sealing scroll of her most important possessions in her hip pouch.

One day goes by peacefully. So does the second.

On the third, Sakura greets the flicker of chakra in her periphery and the darkness that descends on her when someone strikes the back of her neck with a bittersweet smile.

* * *

 **as always, tell me what you thought!**


	3. Chapter 3

**can i just say how blown away i was by the response to the first two chapters? thank you all so much! keep it up!**

 **tw for this chapter: physical abuse, fairly graphic descriptions of injury, very, very, mild mention of pedophilia**

 **enjoy!**

* * *

When Sakura opens her eyes, it takes her a second to realise what exactly she's looking at.

Metal. Sturdy metal planks, the scaffolding of a bunk bed. The wall to her left is grey cement, and her fingers stroke over scratchy, bleached sheets. Slowly, cautiously, she sits up.

The room around her is bare. Another bunk bed stands against the opposite wall. There are also two chests of drawers by the far wall. No window. A single lightbulb hangs from the ceiling, and the weak, yellow light casts eerie shadows on the corners of the room.

And then she has no more time to look around as a uniformed, yet unmasked teen appears before her.

"Come." He orders simply, then turns on his heel and heads towards the reinforced steel door.

Sakura scrambles up, notes that her pack is still secure around her waist, and hastens to follow her escort. He leads her through bare, poorly-lit, winding corridors that seem to go on forever, until finally, they reach a set of double-doors. The teen knocks twice then pushes them open, revealing what can only be described as a _throne room_.

And on the opposite end –

Sakura's breath catches in her throat.

 _Danzo._

Her escort starts forward, across what seems to be a bridge, and Sakura fights the temptation to look over the railing and check how big the drop is. There are weird, metal pipes that stick out from the walls and climb up, up, higher than Sakura can see, and with a jolt, she realises that they're underground. _Deep_ underground, from the looks of it. _It would explain the lack of windows._

When they're within thirty feet of the Elder, Sakura suddenly feels a hand push between her shoulder blades. She's not expecting the movement so it catches her off-balance, and the force behind the hit brings her to her knees. Sakura hits the floor with a thud and a hiss, barely catches herself on her hands to keep her nose from smacking into the cement floor.

"The newest recruit, as you requested, Danzo-sama." Her escort announces, falling into a deep bow.

"At ease, Nezumi." Danzo orders, and Sakura hears him move even as her eyes are still focused on her hands. "Look up, child." he says sharply, and Sakura carefully raises her gaze.

Danzo has stood up and stepped out from behind the desk, and now his single, piercing eye is trained on her.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asks, and Sakura debates for a split-second whether to lie or come clean _right now._

(it's possible she hasn't _quite_ thought this through.)

 _Lie._

She shakes her head. "No, sir." She denies, feels the thrum of approval in the Elder's chakra at the title.

"My people saw you play around with something very special. Do you know what it was?"

Sakura's hesitation is real this time, but she still repeats, "No, sir."

Danzo's gaze sharpens.

"Do you not know, then, that Wood Release hasn't been seen occurring naturally since the Shodaime?"

Sakura doesn't miss how he highlights 'naturally', then she has a split second to decide whether to repeat herself again, or up the stakes. She chooses the latter.

"'Wood Release', sir?"

Danzo lets out a sound that she almost wants to call frustrated. He turns to Nezumi. "Civilian?"

"Yes, sir." The teen confirms, having straightened from his bow. "No indication of shinobi heritage."

A jolt of fear runs through Sakura at the notion that ROOT had already managed to get information on her family, but it's forcefully shoved to the back of her mind when Danzo nods sharply and turns his attention back to her.

"You have a unique gift that, by all accounts, you shouldn't have." He starts, and Sakura stills. "When did you realise you could manipulate nature?"

 _Think think_ _ **THINK**_ _!_

"I…"

Sakura thinks back to her old life, to Naruto losing control of the Kyuubi when overcome with emotion, to Sasuke's chidori sparkling off of him in uncontrollable bursts in his grief, to Kakashi's unexpected viciousness when he learnt of every comrade they lost in the war, to Yamato creating beautiful gardens of death when he found out that Sai had been killed.

 _Emotion_.

A shinobi's greatest strength and greatest downfall.

 _Lie,_ she reminds herself.

"I got into an argument with my parents." She manages at last, hangs her head in pretend-remorse. "I… they yelled at me, I was upset and I-I ran away from home. I ended up in the f-forest, and when I fell and hit the grass, flowers bloomed around me." She's breathless when she finishes, the run-on sentences and adrenaline masking the tremor in her voice.

She's never been a good liar, but here she is, lying to one of the best deceivers Konoha has ever seen.

Danzo scrutinises her for a moment, and the silence is suffocating.

"I can teach you to control it." He says finally, and Sakura jerks in surprise. There's an odd glint in the Elder's eye when she looks up, a mix of hunger and satisfaction. "I can teach you to wield it. Do you want that?"

For a second, Sakura is stunned, speechless.

She's still _alive._ He _believed_ her.

Then, she remembers that she's six. A civilian. A _child,_ and a girl at that.

Danzo may be crazy and paranoid, but apparently, even he doesn't expect deception from everyone.

"Yes!" she almost sobs, her relief very much real, then composes herself. "Yes, sir. I do."

Something awful happens to Danzo's face then – all his scars twist and his lip twitches and the skin around his eye crinkles and pulls and- _oh_.

Danzo is _smiling._

Then Nezumi strikes the back of her neck and her eyes fall shut to the memory of that haunting expression.

* * *

Over the next few days, Sakura's tested almost relentlessly; they take her blood, saliva, skin and hair samples, but they also drill her in the ninja arts: she's put through tests for nin, tai, genjutsu, weapons throwing, flexibility, speed, stamina, strategy – and it's terrifying but also exhilarating.

Terrifying, because she has to carefully plan each and every action because she has a cover to maintain, but exhilarating, because she knows she could ace every single one of those tests if she was actually taking them seriously.

She intentionally flunks ninjutsu, because she's meant to be a civilian with a dormant kekkei genkai not a trained shinobi, passes genjutsu detection and creation once she asks to be shown a technique – they choose to teach her the Hell-Viewing technique, and it's such a brutal throwback to her first Chunin Exams that she flubs her first attempt and only manages to cast the illusion on the second, but apparently, that's still good for the shinobi assessing her because he passes her without question.

She makes herself just barely pass taijutsu, alternating between Naruto's old brawl-style taijutsu and Tsunade-honed dodging, but she lets herself _ace_ weapons throwing.

She keeps her flexibility, speed and stamina only marginally higher than that of a first year Academy student, which in the eyes of her assessor translates to Piss-Poor But Not Unexpected and actually puts in an effort with the strategy, earning the first expression other than detachment or disdain from her evaluator – he raises an eyebrow when she successfully outmanoeuvres two agents she suspects to be orphaned Nara and Yamanaka.

She gets a pass overall, three jutsu scrolls with elementary ninjutsu techniques, only some of which she doesn't already know, and a uniform.

She also gets a mask; _Tori._

Her bunkmate, she learns, is _Neko_. Her other roomates are _Uma_ and _Ushi_.

They honestly couldn't have made it clearer that they were going to make bunkmates fight each other to the death if they'd _tried_.

Overall, Sakura's first week in ROOT is fairly uneventful.

Then, she's assigned a mission.

On paper, it's simple: corner one of the civilian nobles with a rumoured taste for minors as he's leaving the bar and kill him, but make it look like a civilian. She's mildly thrown by the last instruction, because that throws out nin or taijutsu and even most of her weapons, and she hasn't had to get up-close and intimate with a target since she grasped Tsunade's unique taijutsu style.

But she sets out for the mission with Nezumi and Buta – tries to ignore the niggling suspicion that Nezumi is there exclusively as her handler and will report every misstep she makes straight back to Danzo – and gets on with it.

It's almost shamefully easy to corner the target and lead him to the empty, dark alleyway at the back of the bar, and it's easier still to knock the man's feet out from under him and wrap her tiny hands around his throat, pressing in with her thumbs until the thyroid cartilage gives way under her grip and he suffocates.

Sakura rises and tries to ignore the bile that rises in her throat when she thinks that she's just killed a man in cold blood, ten years before she even came at anyone with the intent to kill in the original timeline.

When she turns to Nezumi and Buta, she gets an approving nod from the former and is beckoned over to Buta's side with a careless flick of fingers. Once at his side, she allows him to lead her away, back to the base.

They leave so quickly that she completely misses Nezumi step up to the corpse, misses the vial of blood he uncorks and pours over the target and the ground around him, misses the familiar pink hair he sprinkles over the target's jacket.

All she feels is a mix of disgust and adrenaline, and she carefully doesn't think why she can't quite keep a satisfied smile off of her face.

* * *

Sakura survives a month without any major complications. She trains with Neko, works up her ninjutsu arsenal and learns the ROOT sign language and does little missions around Konoha, always supervised by Nezumi.

She also learns just how they trained emotion out of the agents.

"I _told_ you, I can't _do that_ yet!" she yells at Saru, tears of frustration and pain leaking out of her eyes as she's whipped again. Her back burns, and it's only been five lashes so far but she's young and this body is unused to pain.

"You will do what you're told, when you're told." Saru replies flatly, and it's the same line they've rattled off since she first said she can't make her Wood Release go through thirty feet of solid concrete.

"Concrete isn't fertile ground! I need a focusing point, a seed, _something_!" she snaps back, dislocates her shoulder in an effort to wrench herself out of Kuma's grip when she feels it loosen in surprise and jumps away.

She's topless and bleeding and her back burns with every breath and her eyes sting with tears and she's doubtless added another five lashes onto her list, but she's _six_ and Saru is holding a _cat-o'-nine-tails._

"Lord Danzo has told you that the Shodaime was able to create life out of nothing." Saru recites dutifully, and Sakura bares her teeth, feels her anger reach a dangerous point.

"And _I_ told _you_ that I'm _not the Shodaime_!" she shrieks, and it might be paranoia, it might be frustration, or it might be the flicker of movement she registers in her peripheral vision and the twist of something dark and ugly in Saru's chakra, but she slams her palms together and pushes all the chakra she has left, all her emotions and anger and pain and helplessness into the ground.

Roots burst forth, some ten times the width of her torso, some thinner than her forearm, and she's thrown off balance, forced onto her bleeding, wounded back and she watches as nature, wild and uncontrolled wreaks havoc in the training room.

There's an ugly squelching sound and Kuma is skewered by a particularly thick root, caught mid-motion with a kunai raised over his head, and Sakura watches in sick fascination as the root enters around the height of his intestines and leaves through his right lung.

Saru just barely avoids the same fate, but can't quite escape the small root that wraps around his whip-wielding wrist and twists. There's a crunch and the whip drops to the ground, Saru's forearm now at a right angle to the rest of his arm.

The entire room now resembles the roots of the gnarled trees Sakura remembers from the Forest of Death, and all she can hear once the chakra she'd pumped into the technique runs out is the steady _drip drip drip_ of blood from Kuma's direction.

"Dismissed." Saru orders, and his voice is tight with pain but also something else that sounds an awful lot like satisfaction, and Sakura's most primal instincts tell her to fear that tone.

She hears the big steel door to the training room open and slam shut, and then she's alone.

Sakura breathes out and carefully rolls herself onto her front, hissing when her back pulls and the scabbed over wounds tear open. She lies there for what feels like an age, debating whether now would be a good time to experiment and see whether she has enough control for her full-body Mystical Palm or whether she should get over herself and limp to the medic.

And then she's snapped out of her musings as a body settles beside her.

She twists her head and notes that the figure is also small, but considerably bigger than her. A teen then, maybe, but what matters is that they throw a towel over her back and start nudging her to sit up.

"Hey," the boy murmurs, and it's the gentlest Sakura's been addressed since landing herself in ROOT, "still conscious?"

"Yeah." she manages after a beat, because nodding sounds like an awful idea right now.

"Your back needs to be cleaned. Will you let me carry you?" the boy – Ōkami, she realises, once she gets a look at his mask – asks, and once she murmurs another 'yes', he carefully pulls her to her feet and helps her climb onto his back, piggy-back style.

"I'm sorry to move you, but they'll probably send someone to destroy your creation soon, and it would be unfortunate to be caught in the middle of that." Ōkami tells her, and it's not quite cheerful, but there's an edge of personality behind the words, and that's more than Sakura's heard in a month.

"It's okay. Thank you." She manages, cheek pressed to her unlikely saviour's shoulder as the blood-loss starts making itself known.

They eventually end up in a room that's almost identical to Sakura's, with the same two bunkbeds and closets and washbasins, only this room has pages upon pages of artwork stuck to the walls. It's childish but surprisingly intricate, and familiar in a way she can't quite place at the moment.

She lets Ōkami set her on the bottom bunk, gratefully accepts the offered painkillers, and rides out the sting of antiseptic and the pierce-and-pull of hand stitches, and the gauze that the teen tapes to her back.

When he's done, she pillows her head on her folded arms and does her best to send him a smile. "Thank you." She repeats, and her smile widens when he takes off his mask. She may have overestimated his age in her initial guess, because while the hair is grey, his face still retains the baby-fat of preteen years. Ten to twelve, she would say, though his eyes make him seem older than Kakashi.

"I'm Tori." She says at last, realising she left her mask in the training room. "Though…" she hesitates, but she doesn't feel the expected anxiety at what she's about to say. "I used to be called Sakura."

"I can see why." The teen replies, and he doesn't smile, not quite, but his expression grows warmer nonetheless. "I'm Ōkami, and that lump there is Inu." He gestures to the top bunk of the opposite bed, where Sakura can just about make out a dark-haired head peeking out from a nest of blankets.

"Before…" he continues, hesitates in that same way Sakura did, "before, I used to be called Shin, and my brother's name is Sai."

Sakura freezes.


	4. Chapter 4

**as always, thank you to everyone who commented on this little story of mine! big love to y'all! hope you enjoy this one!**

* * *

 _Sai._

Sakura's thoughts are a maelstrom.

This had been the whole point of reviving an extinct Nature Transformation, of getting caught by ROOT, of risking desensitisation and death willingly and consistently: kill or expose Danzo, and save Sai.

But now, having the boy actually in front of her, the abstract idea of saving Sai becomes a _must._

He is _so small._

At his introduction, he peaks his tiny head out of the nest of blankets and blinks sleepily at Sakura, then goes right back to sleep.

Sakura's even more thrown by the fact that there's _life_ in his eyes!

 _Operation: Save Sai has just become a priority._ She thinks wryly, feels the surge of protectiveness in her heart at the soft, snuffling snore that comes from the bunk not a few seconds later.

She turns back to Shin, and she's not sure what he sees on her face, but the look in his eyes softens just a touch more.

"Do you want something to eat?" he asks, and Sakura nods, only just realising that she's _starving._

She's a bit woozy and still casually topless, because she's _six_ and even at eighteen she didn't have much in terms of breasts so it hardly fazes her, and also she's got _big, painful wounds all over her back._ Still, Shin must take her sudden silence for discomfortand she barely catches the shirt he throws at her face.

For a kid only about ten or eleven, he's scarily perceptive and rather hilariously motherly.

Sakura accepts the manju gratefully though she raises an eyebrow at the surprising freshness. Shin's lip quirks upwards the tiniest bit.

"Our third roommate has… special circumstances." He says cryptically, and Sakura knows even without asking that that's all he's going to say on that matter.

She shrugs and gets the manju down, then lets herself ask the uncomfortable question that had been bothering her since Shin offered to treat her wounds.

"Why did you help me?" she asks quietly, because she's in _his_ room with _his_ gauze across her back, dressed in _his_ shirt and eating _his_ food, and yet they're both in an organisation whose very goal is to encourage the 'every man for himself' mentality.

It just doesn't add up.

Shin sighs, but that peculiar quirk to his lip doesn't disappear, and if not for the fact that Sakura _knows_ otherwise, she would wonder if he too had travelled in time because the look in his eyes is _old._

"The first thing they stamp out in ROOT isn't emotion." He replies, and he looks tired, world-weary in a way someone who's not even a teen yet has no right to be.

"It's aggression. That's why you were punished; not because you couldn't do what they wanted you to, but because you _resisted._ You're young and you're new, but you fight it, fight the conditioning. You remember that there's another way."

Sakura frowns, tries not to acknowledge the shiver of sheer _dread_ that runs down her back, instead says;

"You do too, don't you? You helped me, dressed my wounds, brought me to your room. Clearly, you must remember too."

She's reaching, testing her luck, testing _Shin_ , because she had planned to keep the fact that she was resisting the conditioning as much she could a _secret,_ but if she could have an ally, someone who clearly also cared for Sai, then maybe…

"I almost don't." Shin denies, and the almost-smile turns into an unhappy frown. "It's been too long for me. But I try to. Because I can't let Sai forget."

And that, right there, that devotion… Sakura wonders just _how_ long it had been, and before her brain quite catches up, she asks;

"How long _has it_ been? How long have you been here?"

"Almost three years." Comes the immediate response, and Sakura's heart _aches._

She sucks in a sharp breath.

"I'm sorry." She whispers, even though she should be putting more effort into her cover, into convincing him that she really _is_ six and doesn't know exactly what she's signing up for, being in ROOT, but he's just a _child_ and to think what he must've endured… "I'm so sorry."

And then, because she _can't not,_ she adds, "And, I'm also sorry but I have to ask... How do I know that this isn't some kind of test?"

To her surprise, the almost-smile comes back, and there's a glint that looks almost like hope in Shin's eyes.

"You may yet survive this." He murmurs, settles on the bed beside her. "You don't. How about a trade?"

Sakura's eyes narrow, but she nods hesitantly.

"I am ill. They think it's terminal." He says, and Sakura thinks she remembers Sai mentioning something of the like, but to hear Shin say it so matter-of-fact still breaks her heart. "But before I die, I'm going to do everything in my power to bring this organisation down for what it did to my brother."

Sakura tenses, shocked. "I…" she hesitates. "I could report you for this, you know."

Because she could. She _should,_ and he has to know that.

"I know." And the quirk to his lips is bittersweet this time.

He doesn't say _but you won't,_ he doesn't need to. They both know she won't.

Sakura is suddenly struck with the realisation that if Shin survived, he would've been _terrifying_. That level of manipulation, the skill at reading the tells and responding in kind, of saying a lot while not saying anything much at all, the constant control of trust and the power-balance… Sakura swallows nervously.

"What's the trade?" she asks, almost inaudibly, and a victorious glint passes through Shin's eyes for just a millisecond, before it's hastily wiped away.

"If me and my partner die before we succeed, will you finish what we couldn't?"

Sakura nods, because that's what she planned for anyway, then a thought registers. "Who's your partner?"

Shin smiles, and it's the first proper smile she's seen from him since this whole ordeal began, and she's suddenly breathless.

"I think you're about to meet him, actually."

Then, the door opens and Sakura's breath catches in her throat.

* * *

Shisui limps into his dorm, exhausted and bruised, and he wants nothing more than to sleep and report in the morning, and then maybe he'll be allowed to go home and see Itachi and play with little Sasuke and forget how the rivers of blood he leaves behind him grow deeper after every mission he runs.

He's not prepared to find Shin on Kuma's bed with an unknown, pink-haired child beside him, who's staring at him with a look he's only seen on one person before. The thought of his cousin is a fond one, as is seeing the smile Shin directs at him, but the child is still an _unknown,_ and unknowns are _dangerous._

"Shin." He greets and shuts the door behind him, grabs an apple from his pack before dropping it and his mask on the floor. "Where's Kuma?"

He doesn't like his bunkmate, but he's necessary if Shisui wants to gain Danzo's trust and be allowed on the guarding rotation.

To his surprise, it's the child who answers.

"I killed him." she – or Shisui guesses she's a she – says, and Shisui shouldn't be surprised, god knows Itachi started young too, but it's the girl's eyes, a mix of curiosity and wariness when she looks at him, but not a hint of guilt, that draw his attention. "Training accident."

What sort of monster must hide behind the pink hair and guileless eyes, Shisui wonders as he nibbles at his apple, if she can get the drop on the shinobi who'd been ROOT even during the Third War and _survived_?

"Was it now?" he asks coldly and leans against the opposite bunk, expression intentionally unreadable. He trusts Shin, but he should know better than to bring random children into their room or he might jeopardise their whole operation.

His eyes flicker to Shin's hand which has been twitching annoyingly since he walked in, then he frowns when he realises there's a pattern to the twitches:

- _L-L-Y-A-L-L-Y-A-L-L-_

He scoffs, and relaxes, letting the tension fade from his shoulders.

"Must've been some accident." He says at last, and he knows he sounds dubious, but the girl just smiles wryly instead of looking offended.

"Tends to happen when you're messing around with an extinct Nature Transformation." She replies tartly and shrugs, though Shisui doesn't miss the wince of pain that flashes over her face at the motion.

Huh, so she _was_ punished. Interesting.

"'Extinct'?" he echoes, when her words fully register, and a peculiar expression flickers over the girl's face – she's surprisingly emotive for a ROOT recruit, but the look in her eyes at his question is sharp and challenging.

There's a second of silence, and then Shisui nearly has a heart attack because the half-eaten apple in his hand suddenly dries up and goes brown, and then it sprouts and a seedling is growing out of his hand in the next second, growing to almost two feet tall before Shisui finally unfreezes and drops it.

The tree doesn't stop growing once it hits the floor, and he watches, transfixed, as it goes through a many-years' life cycle in the span of _seconds,_ roots growing out and wrapping around the metal legs of the bunkbeds, winding around Shisui's ankles, slithering along the floor like wooden snakes, and his brain kicks into gear when flowers begin to bloom on the tree and the scent of spring fills the air.

He flashes through the necessary seals and spits a small fireball at the tree, and for a moment, he's worried that it won't be enough, that it'll keep growing, but within seconds, the tree is reduced to a pile of ash at his feet, and the smell of spring in the air is overwhelmed by the smell not unlike that of a bonfire.

He stares at the girl, momentarily speechless.

There are three options for what he just witnessed, and they're all insane. _Genjutsu, some time-controlling technique, or Mokuton?_

Then, he realises that she'd said 'extinct Nature Transformation' and he almost doesn't want to believe, but asks anyway;

"Mokuton?" and his voice is quiet, disbelieving, like speaking any louder will break the magic of the moment and he'll wake up still in the field, delirious from some topical poison.

But the girl nods, and even Shin looks serious so he knows she's not lying. Shisui sighs and lets himself slide down the bunk and drops on to his bum on the floor, leaning back against the bed.

"Wow." He murmurs, because he may have the Mangekyo and Itachi may be the youngest in their Clan's history to unlock the Sharingan, but being one of three people to have the Shodaime's legendary technique is still something that makes his jaw drop.

"I'm Uchiha Shisui, mask Risa." He adds belatedly, and the girl offers him a small smile.

"Sakura. My mask is Tori."

"Well, Sakura," and Shisui isn't normally so quick to trust, but Shin must've already tested the girl and found her worthy, so he lets the grin he normally keeps for Sasuke surface and moves to sit on his heels, "how do you feel about revolution?"

The smile that blooms on the girl's face is brilliant and mischievous and bloodthirsty and just a touch unhinged, and Shisui has his answer.

* * *

Things fall into a routine from there, and Sakura is startled when she realises she's been a ROOT agent for almost half a year.

She barely sleeps in her room anymore, staying instead on Kuma's old bunk in the boys' room, and every night, the adrenaline rush at the possibility of being discovered makes her tremble, but the dopamine rush afterwards, when she makes it to their room without detection is totally worth it.

Sakura doesn't spend time with her bunkmate save for the obligatory weekly training sessions, yet she feels sorry for Neko. The other girl is very obviously an Inuzuka, but her ninken is nowhere to be found, and, Sakura suspects, she never had one. Neko has all the marks, all the aggression and animalistic qualities of a trained Inuzuka, but none of the comfort of partnership that Kiba got from Akamaru, and it shows in their fights. Neko is brutal and aggressive and always first to strike, but she's also reckless and careless, so despite the advantage of age she has over Sakura, she's not beating Sakura by an enormous margin in terms of spars won.

(Sakura also wonders how someone from a Clan linked with dog spirits feels at being called 'Neko', and can't help but wonder whether it was intentional.)

As for the boys…

Shisui is _insane_. He's thirteen and he's a jounin and an ANBU operative and he's _fast._ Sakura's willing to bet that he might even be faster than _Kakashi_ , and she hadn't, in her old life, been able to match Kakashi in terms of speed even with the Strength of a Hundred seal active. The fact that he's got the Mangekyo only adds to the insanity.

Shin's quiet calm occasionally breaks to reveal a sharp sense of humour that reminds Sakura a lot of Shiranui Genma, and the boy's skill with a blade, be it a tanto or a katana or a nodachi is a little terrifying.

And _Sai_. Sai is the artist Sakura remembers, even if he has trouble animating anything bigger than a mouse at the moment. Sakura finds out that, Shin and Shisui have been taking turns training him in other areas, and that his speed is at the level of genin Sasuke and he can comfortably hold his own against Shin for a minute with a blade in hand.

She adds a touch of her old life to the boys' training regimen, regaling them with lists of naturally-occurring poisons and their effects and which parts of the body should be struck to knock-out, and which to weaken, and which to kill.

That's not to say Sakura doesn't get drilled by the others. Shisui takes her role as co-conspirator to mean _I will train you until I can be certain you'll survive_ and Sakura finds herself thinking that Tsunade was a gentle mistress. Her speed, however, quickly increases to equal or even superior to Sai's.

Shin puts a blade in her hand and is promptly _appalled_ and Sakura snarls, because in her previous life, she had never had the need nor the interest to pursue bukijutsu, but she doubts she can whip out her enhanced strength without making her new allies suspicious. But she tries hard and feels most comfortable with twin kodachi in her hands, and though Shin laments that she holds them like a barbarian, she's efficient, and that's all that matters.

She improves at a rate that would've been alarming had she not been surrounded by child geniuses, and while she can feel the mental strain of trying to pretend the ROOT conditioning is working, the reprieves she gets with the boys are her saving grace.

Nevertheless, she is self-aware enough to know her psyche is fracturing. She's being torn into three, split into Sakura-the-emotionless-ROOT-agent, Sakura-the-eighteen-year-old-veteran-with-PTSD and Sakura-the-six-year-old, but she's also aware enough to know that there's _nothing she can do_ except hope that she doesn't have a mental breakdown while on a mission.

It's a worrying thought, but at the moment, it's just that – a thought.

She has made _friends_ in ROOT, a concept which seems oxymoronic at its core, but it's true.

Her, Shin and Shisui are united in their desire to burn ROOT to the ground, and she knows that if she stays loyal to the goal, they will stay loyal to her.

Sai is content to just have her around to talk to or sketch with, and she sometimes ends up modelling while he works out the kinks in his drawings, and the surge of fondness and protectiveness doesn't wane. Sai is subdued, colder than most children their age, but he's lightyears away from the boy Sakura met in her teens in her previous life, and she's determined to keep him that way.

Overall, despite the soul-staining missions she's assigned, and the almost-impossible tasks Saru sets her when she's working on her Wood Release, and the shift she can feel in her psyche caused by the conditioning, Sakura's content.

And, as long as her Wood Release keeps improving and she comes back after completing missions, Danzo has no grounds on which to question her continued loyalty.

After eight months in ROOT, Sakura has run more missions than she did in her six years as a kunoichi of Konoha in her previous life. Things are going well.

Then, Shisui introduces her to his cousin, and it doesn't click just _who_ that is until Sakura's staring Uchiha Itachi in the face.


	5. Chapter 5

**thank you for the wonderful response to this story of mine! i love writing it and seeing y'all enjoying it is incredibly rewarding so thanks!**

* * *

They're at the only indoor training ground in HQ that isn't entirely made of concrete but has dirt and sand and some trees and even foliage. But Sakura can't appreciate it, frozen as she is by the sight of the face of the man whose loyalty to his Village had destroyed his brother, who had been known as the worst to come out of Konoha save for maybe Orochimaru, still lined with _baby-fat_.

Shin and Sai are beside her, both quiet and still as they wait for Shisui to speak.

Sakura is still cataloguing the differences between Uchiha Itachi, S-Ranked criminal turned martyr patriot and Uchiha Itachi, eleven year old _child_.

He's so _small_ next to Shisui, slighter than even Shin despite the latter's illness, and it's only now that Sakura, presented with the painful reality, realises that Sarutobi had ordered a _child_ to murder his family.

Sakura is suddenly hit with a wave of sheer _loathing_ for the Sandaime.

"Cousin, this is Tori, Inu and Ōkami." Shisui introduces, and Sakura privately finds it curious that he doesn't use their real names. They may be out in the training ground instead of in their sound-proofed room, but it's the middle of the night, a time even ROOT agents sleep, despite the lack of windows to tell the time - the chances of being overheard are low.

Or, she thinks, notes the look Shisui trades with Shin, sees the unspoken message even if she knows not what it is, he doesn't _trust_ Itachi.

"It's a pleasure." Shin murmurs, and Sakura hums in confirmation while Sai nods. "Though I can't help but wonder why the Uchiha heir would come here, of all places?"

Sakura barely restrains herself from shooting Shin an incredulous look, and she sees Sai tense out of the corner of her eye. So she's not alone in thinking that this is uncharacteristic behavior for Shin, but when Shisui relaxes ever so slightly, Sakura reckons she might have an inkling as to what the wordless conversation they'd had had been about.

Itachi, though not the emotionless terror of her memories, hardly reacts beyond a miniscule frown between his brows.

"Father wishes for me to try for ANBU soon." He reports quietly, if tonelessly, voice far softer than Sakura expected. "He believed this would be an... efficient way of testing my capability."

Shin's lip curls, but the smile is mirthless, the expression is far from friendly. "Then I propose a spar. Tori, if you would?"

Sakura can't help the twitch of surprise this time, but she schools her expression when she sees the calculating glint in Shin's eyes, and the relief in Shisui's. She doesn't know what those two are playing at, but she would be lying if she said that, beyond the apprehension at facing a _genius_ , she isn't excited to test the limitations of this body.

She nods sharply and heads for one side of the training ground, not turning to see if Itachi follows. She knows he is.

* * *

Sakura lets the barrage of kunai fly, and as the blades are deflected, creates earth clones. The problem with fighting geniuses, she's learnt, is that they either try to end the fight with one punch, because they can, or they underestimate their opponent, allowing them to draw the fight out.

Itachi, Sakura realises, belongs to the latter category.

All the better for her.

She sends one of the earth clones to attack Itachi head-on, unsurprised when it's destroyed before it has a chance to land a single solid hit, but in the time Itachi's attention is diverted, she flashes through the hand-signs and sends chakra-sharpened earth spikes at Itachi, and as he dodges, she uses his moment of inattention to henges one of her clones into a shuriken.

Sakura grabs a handful more shuriken and throws them at Itachi, unsurprised when they're harmlessly deflected, but she sees the tiny flash of surprise when her shuriken-clone is suddenly at the Uchiha's back, kunai drawn.

Itachi dispatches her clone effortlessly, but in that precious second that he's not looking at her, Sakura creates a Shadow Clone and lets herself drop underground in Kakashi's favorite technique, the changeover almost seamless.

She would be worried by being left with a third of her normal reserves if they were in the field, but in the context of this spar, she's unconcerned. She knows neither of them are fighting to kill.

Sakura positions herself under his feet, feels her earth clones pop from a fireball even as her Shadow Clone dodges, and pushes both hands through the ground to grab Itachi's ankle.

She gets a kunai to the hand for her efforts, though she manages to twist so it cuts her forearm instead, and she's inexplicably _angry_ that he got first blood, and that powers her enough to jerk Itachi's foot underground while she surfaces and goes for the trees, chakra hidden.

As Itachi spits a small Water Bullet at his captive ankle, the waterlogged earth giving easily and letting him extract his foot, he misses the moment Sakura kawarimis with her clone, though he meets the barrage of shuriken she throws at him with his eyes blazing Sharingan-red, for the first time since they began the fight.

Sakura doesn't give him time to retaliate, though she can see, with no small amount of satisfaction, that that perfect, unruffled facade is beginning to crumble. She rushes him then, meets his perfect taijutsu forms with Tsunade-trained dodging and Shisui-trained speed, and for all that Itachi is a genius, at their current ability levels, he's _slower_.

Sakura lets a smile bloom on her face and forgets her inhibitions for a moment.

* * *

Shin knows that if Clan Heads were decided on skill, not birth, it would be his best friend as the heir apparent of the Uchiha Clan, not his best friend's cousin.

He also knows that for all that Shisui plays the fool, for all that he's decidedly unlike the rest of the Uchiha, he is probably the best of the Clan, and not just in terms of strength on the battlefield.

Shisui graduated the Academy at 6 years old, became chunin at 7, gained his Mangekyo that same year. ROOT at ten years old, jounin at 11, ANBU at 12 - there was nowhere to go but up, but there was nowhere 'up' for him to _go_.

Which is why Shin didn't hesitate to throw the girl he's slowly beginning to think of as his younger sister at the Uchiha genius. They all have their stories, their secrets, but neither he nor Shisui missed the fact that Sakura seems to be holding something back when they spar, though they can't quite figure out _what_.

Seeing her fight Itachi, it becomes starkly apparent.

Itachi is a renowned child genius, Shisui is a veteran of the Third War at barely fourteen and a jounin at that, Shin is slowly becoming ROOT's bukijutsu expert while Sai is shaping up to be a ferocious long-range fighter and infiltrator, but Sakura may be the best _shinobi_ of them all.

She uses the terrain to her advantage, throws dirt in Itachi's eyes when he gets too close, hides in plain sight and misdirects his gaze and attention away from her, and has no qualms against fighting dirty even in a spar.

More than that, Shin never realised, because _how could he_ when he was usually despairing at her kenjutsu stance, but Sakura's chakra reserves are _enormous_ for her age. Coupled with her control, he's not surprised to see the Uchiha losing ground.

"Is this what you had in mind?" He mutters out of the corner of his mouth, lets himself smile when he feels Shisui link their pinkies for a second and squeeze, before letting go, all the confirmation either of them need.

Together, they've never needed words.

* * *

Itachi doesn't like being a shinobi.

He is one because it's in his blood, because his dojutsu allows him to be the best fighter on the battlefield in any given situation, because he is his Clan's heir and he's been trained to be _better-faster-stronger_ than everyone else since he could walk.

That doesn't mean he enjoys it, not the way some of his clansmen do. But until he is old enough to take over the Clan, he will play the good shinobi and honourable first son, which means he will be _the best._

Somehow, in all his planning and training and subtle undermining of his Father's power-plays, he didn't account for ROOT.

More precisely, he didn't think he'd find _humanity_ in ROOT.

Shisui's been in the shadow ranks since his jounin promotion, and Itachi quickly learnt to tell which missions were with standard ANBU and which were ROOT by the expression in his best friend's eyes when he got back home.

But when Fugaku decided to send him to ROOT and asked Shisui to 'show him the ropes', he didn't expect to find Shisui had made _friends_ in a war-hawks deprived safe-guarding organisation of orphan assassins. The easy, wordless exchange between his cousin and the grey-haired boy, the _softness_ and relief in Shisui's expression... Itachi could admit, if only to himself, that it threw him.

But what throws him the most is that he's _losing._

He's losing to a girl who's no older than his brother, who barely reaches his armpit in height, who, for all intents and purposes, has had no special training yet has _chakra reserves the size of the average chunin and control to match Shisui's._

The only fights Itachi has ever lost since his chunin promotion have been with his Father and Shisui.

He will not lose here.

Sharingan swirling, he switches from the defensive to offensive, throws a fireball to disorient and tracks where the girl dodges to. He flashes there, strikes out with Uchiha Style taijutsu before she has a chance to correct her landing, lands one, two, four hits, dislocating the girl's shoulder with a sickening crunch; then she catches up and gets back into the game of keep-away she's been playing. Itachi lets a small frown show and swoops low, sweeps the girl's legs out from under her, palms a kunai to press into her throat as she falls, but she doesn't stop when she meets the ground back-first, and instead _sinks into it._

Itachi doesn't quite manage to twist out of the way of a barrage of senbon which fly towards him from the _completely opposite side_ of the training grounds, and one hits the nerve in his elbow making him drop the kunai, while another sinks deep into the back of his knee, making it buckle.

 _Aimed at pressure-points._ He catalogues absently, a tad incredulously as he sinks to the ground and turns towards the tree-line, hands flashing through the seals for Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu and hurls them at the trees. Then there's movement by his injured knee that makes him grab for a kunai, and the girl rises up from the ground, grabs the knife he dropped as he fell in her working hand and points it at his throat.

They stare at each other for a few seconds, both breathing hard, her knife at his throat, his at her femoral artery, neither dropping eye-contact until slow applause reaches them from the side-lines.

"I'd say you lost that, cousin-dear." Shisui announces cheerfully, lip quirked ever-so-slightly, the expression in his eyes unreadable.

Itachi and the girl both jerk at that, incredulous and disbelieving. Finally, the girl moves, pockets the kunai and holds out a hand to pull him up.

"Good fight." she murmurs and bends down to pluck the senbon from his knee with a wry smile and a pulse of chakra later, Itachi can put weight on his leg without it buckling.

He waits until she straightens and holds out the Seal of Reconciliation, which she mirrors with an absent smile. "Well fought." he echoes, finally taking a moment to assess what damage she suffered over the course of their spar.

Beyond the dislocated shoulder, there are a few kunai cuts and a small burn on her shin where she didn't fully escape his fire jutsu. She falters when she takes a step, uninjured arm coming up to her stomach with a wince and Itachi has a flash-memory of driving his foot in a vicious side-kick into the soft tissue there and he stifles a guilty flinch.

"Sai-chan," the girl calls, walking off the training grounds and towards the youngest boy, pale and dark-haired in such a way that he wouldn't look out of place amongst the Uchiha, "set this for me, will you?"

Itachi has a moment of heart-stopping panic when he imagines asking Sasuke to set his shoulder and is about to offer to do it himself, but the boy nods and sets about maneuvering the joint back into place.

He turns to his cousin and freezes, because there's a curious, calculating expression on Shisui's face, and an even more odd one on his friend's, a worrying mix of amusement and vindictive satisfaction that he wipes away as soon as he notices Itachi looking.

"If you're wondering why we asked you to spar with Tori, Itachi-kun," the boy says, and Itachi feels distinctly uncomfortable, like he's been laid bare before the boy's eyes and found wanting, "it's because you are an acknowledged and renowned genius out there." he continues and jerks his chin at the ceiling, to indicate what 'there' means, "But Shisui wanted you to remember that you're not _there_ , you're _here_. And here, well." he laughs, but it's humourless and cold, and the smile he offers Itachi is sharp;

"Here there be _monsters_."

* * *

It takes her a year.

A year of being in ROOT, of letting herself become accustomed to the idea of dropping emotions from her decision-making process, of looking at everything around her and thinking ' _I can use this'_ regardless of whether it's an object or a person.

But after a year, and after beating _Uchiha Itachi_ in a spar, Sakura has enough confidence to start planning.

She writes down every major event she can remember, uses a code she and Ino came up with in another lifetime, a code so nonsensical nobody could hope to break it, but it's a piece of home and it _works_ , and she _plans_.

After three odd years in this body, in this timeline, Sakura can finally admit to herself why she went to ROOT.

Deep down, she knew that if she wanted to enact change, she couldn't approach this life emotionally. She needs to be cool and logical and indifferent; a chess player instead of a chess piece, and for that, she needs to be _ruthless_.

Yet, once a paper ninja, always a paper ninja, and it shows in her big goals, and how they break off into small, individual steps.

And the one she's going to devote most of her near future efforts to?

 _Kill Danzo_.

The steps?

Get on the bodyguard rotation, find evidence of the corruption she _knows_ is there, bring said evidence to the Sandaime, disband ROOT for good and have Danzo hanged.

The first step to that?

Sakura needs to prove her loyalty.

She needs to kill Neko.

* * *

 **before anybody starts screaming 'mary sue she beat itachi!' lemme get one thing straight:  
sakura had been jounin level in canon, trained under tsunade, has six years of combat experience and a _war_ under her belt, plus ~3 years in this timeline, where the focus has been almost exclusively 'i need to get as strong as possible, as soon as possible' while itachi, genius that he may be, has been a shinobi for 4 years total, chunin, no war and at this point is still in the first stage of the sharingan.  
**

 **in other words: fight. me.**

 **also, i love shin. he is my son. i have no idea how he's meant to be in canon because he appeared for like, an _episode_ if that much, all together. which therefore makes him my plaything. **

**also also: setting a dislocated shoulder? ouch.**


	6. Chapter 6

**thank you for the continued support of this story of mine! i love the love y'all have for shin, as well as the overwhelming 'yaasss sakura kicked itachi's ass' sentiment for last chapter! thank u!**

 **tw:  
drug (ab)use  
body horror/mutilation**

* * *

A few weeks after her decision, Sakura is called into Danzo's throne room for what she supposes will be her third 'performance review'.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Danzo finally speaks; "Your Mokuton is progressing at a satisfactory rate."

"Sir." Sakura acknowledges, inclining her head, trying to keep her surprise at the observation out of her voice. Coming from Danzo, it's almost a _compliment_.

"However," he continues, and despite herself, Sakura tenses, "you have yet to use it on missions, or even in practise outside of your training with Saru. Explain."

Sakura desperately wracks her brain, tries to come up with something convincing that's not _I still can't quite believe I can do it and it trips me up every time._

What she ends up saying is a half-truth. "My ability is... _distinctive_ , sir. I am not yet proficient enough in it to be able to ensure that any hostiles who witness me use it in combat and come seeking more information aren't led straight to here." She pauses, thinks, adds, "It would not do if ROOT was discovered because of me."

There's a moment of silence as Danzo considers her, but eventually, he gives a curt nod.

"That's a valid point." He agrees, and Sakura almost sags with relief. "Your proficiency in high level ninjutsu, however," he continues, "has grown at an impressive rate. Enough so, in fact, to trounce Uchiha Itachi in a spar.

Sakura can't quite mask the wince as alarm bells flare up in her mind, her muscles frozen in her panic. _Of course_ they have some sort of monitoring system in the training grounds. It was foolish to assume otherwise given Danzo's paranoia.

"Outside of ROOT, they call him a genius." Danzo says, his expression calculating. "Would you agree?"

 _This is a test._ Sakura's brain informs her, and she lets the corner of her lips curl ever so slightly as she answers, choosing her words carefully.

"Uchiha-san is undeniably talented. But... with all due respect, sir, I believe that term to be a double edged sword." To her surprise, Danzo doesn't ask her to elaborate, just nods.

"And what of his cousin?" Danzo asks, and that feeling of _not right_ in Sakura's gut gets stronger. "Uchiha Shisui, I believe you're familiar with him."

Sakura wonders what the Sai she'd met in her first life would have said to this.

"Shisui-san is a capable shinobi." She acknowledges, tries not to make the fact that she is hedging obvious. "He has taught me a lot."

But it seems like Danzo is momentarily caught in his own mind, as he doesn't react to what she said, and instead mutters, "Yes, yes, it would be a shame to lose the expertise of the Uchiha. They have so much to offer..." and the ominous way he trails off sends shivers down Sakura's spine.

 _This is it._ She realises with a start. _This is how the Massacre came to be._

Then Danzo snaps out of it, and his eye is focused on her. "Are you ready to prove your loyalty?" he demands, and unlike the previous times he'd asked her the same question, this time, Sakura bows her head, sends a quick prayer to the gods for forgiveness and seals her fate.

"Yes, sir. "

* * *

The actual fight, Sakura muses, is underwhelming.

Her and Neko are led to one of the most remote training grounds in the base and given a kunai each, their weapons pouches taken away from them before they enter.

Sakura palms a chilli bomb she'd grabbed from her pack before it was taken away, and carefully doesn't let it show as she faces Neko, kunai drawn.

The other girl is still, tense, but Sakura can feel the energy vibrating beneath her skin, can sense the slight apprehension in her chakra.

In the end, it doesn't matter.

Nezumi says 'go', and before he's even completely finished, Sakura throws the chilli bomb on the ground in front of Neko, and while her Inuzuka nose is momentarily blinded, she coils her kunai-arm back, channels chakra through her muscles, and throws the knife with all her might, the blade surrounded by a blue glow as it flies and strikes true.

The tip of the blade hits perfectly, exactly in between Neko's thyroid gland and her cricoid cartilage, piercing straight through her trachea and not pausing as it meets her spine, severing cartilage and flesh and bone alike, until it comes out at the other end and embeds itself into the wall behind Neko.

The girl stands there for a moment, seemingly uncomprehending, then her legs give out and she falls to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut, dead.

Sakura has a moment of grim satisfaction at the knowledge that she's a step closer to her goal, then the horror hits.

She staggers over to Neko, ignores the stupefied onlookers because the fight didn't even last five seconds, and drops to her knees beside the corpse. A necklace catches her eye, ninja wire wrapped meticulously around what looks like a canine tooth, dangling from a leather thread. Sakura grabs Neko's kunai from her limp hand and carefully cuts the tooth free, stows it in her pocket and gently closes the girl's eyes before she rises to her feet.

Her head is pounding, bile is rising up her throat, and she feels like she's a second away from throwing up, disgusted with herself, but she stands before Nezumi until he nods and hands her back her weapons pouch and promptly dismisses her.

Sakura disappears between one breath and the next.

* * *

It's Sai who finds her.

Well, not Sai himself, but one of his swallows swoops into the ventilation duct she's hiding in. Sakura almost throws one of her senbon at the bird, but she supposes she's indulged in her self-disgust long enough.

(has it been minutes? Hours? _Days_? She doesn't know.)

Surprisingly, not two minutes after the swallow, Shisui appears at the mouth of the vent. This time, she does throw her senbon, but Shisui just bends out of the way and shuffles closer.

"I feel like asking 'are you alright' is an obsolete question." He points out, and Sakura doesn't even have the energy to snort.

"I killed Neko." She says instead, and even she can hear the absolute lack of inflection in her voice. "I'm on Danzo's guard rotation."

Shisui seems nonplussed. "I thought we'd established that as one of our goals."

Anger stirs in Sakura's gut, and Shisui is too close to her to dodge the senbon this time, but she isn't aiming to hurt. _Much_.

"I bartered her life like it was mine to barter!" she snarls, ignores the tears that spill. "And I didn't _care_ because it was just another step in getting from A to B!"

Shisui sighs, sounding world-weary and a touch exasperated, and Sakura sees red. "Most of the time, I'm immensely grateful that the conditioning doesn't seem to work on you as well as it should. But damn it, Sakura, this isn't the place for scrupules."

As if it was never there, Sakura's anger evaporates. He's right, she realises with a start. She'd sworn to throw away her morals this time around, to discount emotion in her decision-making process. This… this is falling straight back into old habits, and she can't afford to let herself be weak like that again. She needs to be cold, efficient, needs to do everything in her might to ensure that this reality is better, even if it means cutting away an integral part of herself.

That's what she came to ROOT for, after all.

"You're right." She says at last, her voice sounding hollow.

Sakura falls into herself, drops into her fragmented mind-set and wrenches up the one she'd most viciously repressed, the one that had absorbed almost all the conditioning, that saw Neko's death as a necessary sacrifice and refused to feel remorse.

When she opens her eyes, she knows what Shisui sees: nothing.

She's as empty of self as Sai had been when she'd first met him, and it feels _liberating_.

Shisui must realise what she's done because he swears and pulls her into a rough embrace. "This is not what I meant. _Fuck_ , Shin is going to kill me."

Before she has a chance to puzzle out what he means, she feels the tug of side-along shunshin and when she blinks, they're back in their room, Sai and Shin shooting them twin looks of confusion.

But Shin must see the expression on her face and connects the dots, because for the first time she's known him, he looks truly angry.

"God damn it, Shisui, you could've handled that better." He snaps and rises to his feet, pulling Sakura out of Shisui's arms and into his own. He tucks her head under his chin and pulls them both to sit on his bed, all but manhandling her onto his lap.

Shisui hesitates, torn between turning tail and staying, but a glare from Shin keeps him from bolting. With a sigh, the teen settles on Shin's other side and sets to rubbing Sakura's back, and it's more comforting than it has any right to be.

Eventually, in what could've been minutes or hours, she forces the cold aloofness back down, keeps the _must not hesitate_ mantra close to the surface but summons back the presence of mind to recognise when the emotional distance is necessary and when she can simply let herself _be_. She comes back to herself enough to note that Shin winces minutely every time she tightens her arms around his chest.

She's still not tried out her medical ninjutsu, wary of doing so in ROOT, where her ability would be immediately exploited and might separate her from her boys, but a chakra net is undetectable and not technically iroyu-nin jutsu.

What she finds, however, when she casts it over Shin's body, makes her freeze.

"Your ribs are cracked." She breathes, horror in her voice, because she _knows_ what causes that particular type of fractures.

The way Shin tenses beneath her hands tells her all she needs to know.

"I told you. I'm _ill_ , Sakura-chan." He explains tiredly, but this time, Sakura hears exactly what he's _not_ saying.

"But I never hear you cough!" it never occurred to her before, but for someone who'd said 'they think it's terminal' about his illness, who Sakura absently remembers having a _lung disease_ from what the Sai from her other life had said, Shin doesn't have the most important and obvious _symptom_ of lung disease.

"Aniue has a silencing seal around his bed." Sai informs her helpfully, and she feels more than hears the curse Shin breathes into her hair.

Sakura ignores her horror at that, ignores the little voice that tells her Shin hadn't realised Sai _knew_ , and concentrates instead, brings the medic she'd supressed to the front of her mind, then says; "What medicine do you take? Because I should've heard you cough. We might not go on missions together all that often but we still spend time together. I _should have_ heard you."

Shin doesn't move, so Sakura digs her nails into his skin, and he winces at the sting even through the shirt. There's no getting out of this now. She _needs_ to know.

Grudgingly, Shin manhandles her off of his lap and onto Shisui's and moves to dig something out from under the bed, coming up with a small metal box and a glass bottle.

He opens the box, and inside Sakura sees something that looks suspiciously like dark molasses. When she leans down to lightly sniff the substance, a heavy, bitter stench fills her nostrils and she flinches back, coughs.

 _Opium._ She realises with no small amount of horror. _Raw opium._ She chances a glance at the label on the glass bottle and is not particularly surprised when she reads _Laudanum._

"You're an addict." She breathes, feels more than sees Shin jerk at the term beside her. "You have to be by now."

"I'm a _survivor_." Shin snaps, and Shisui's arms tighten around her to the point of almost-pain. "And in case you haven't noticed, our options in terms of health-care are rather limited."

Sakura's quiet, horror-struck. Her momentary crisis of faith in their goal caused by her fight with Neko is a distant memory by now, presented as she has been by a boy she's starting to think of as a _brother_ turning himself into an addict just to survive this hell they're stuck in.

"We'll fix this." She says quietly, her eyes intent on Shin. He meets her gaze and just gives her that tiny, heartbroken smile of his that tells her that he doesn't believe her, that he's long given up hope, but Sakura doesn't _care_.

She'd surpassed a _Sannin_ in her previous life, both on the battlefield and in the hospital, and she didn't have _half_ the motivation then as she has now.

She will cure Shin, or die trying.

* * *

After that, life returns to what the four of them have gotten used to calling 'normal'.

Shin is slightly bemused, because Sakura seems to be taking the promise of 'fixing him' seriously. In the last six monthly supplies requests that are included in ROOT's budget, she'd requested progressively more advanced medical texts, shocking Shisui when she healed a burn he sustained after playing around with Katon two months into her self-study.

Sai is also progressing at a mildly alarming rate with his animated creations, his _Chōjū Giga_ unpredictable and so versatile Shin is terrified of the day Danzo discovers just _how_ useful Sai's art can be.

Shisui is the one that worries him the most, however. His best friend has been absent for almost five weeks, and whenever he's been in ROOT for the last three months, he looked ragged and weary, weighed down in a way that Shin doesn't believe was down to simple physical exhaustion.

He even missed Sakura's eighth _birthday_.

(Sakura didn't seem too heartbroken, because Shisui's gift once he came back was an enormous scroll with a familiar uchiwa fan that Shin didn't think was anything other than stolen, but Sakura had smiled and Shisui had relaxed, so Shin had kept his silence.)

And now, he watches as Sai spars with Sakura, pure taijutsu and no chakra, when suddenly he feels a hand on his shoulder, and he's moving, twisting and shifting his weight before the action quite registers, ready to throw whoever it is on the ground. But the person reacts even quicker, twists Shin's arm behind his back and yanks him into their chest and it's only then that Shin smells the mix of smoke and ozone that he's come to associate with Shisui, and he relaxes, if only slightly.

(the main problem is that he hadn't heard or sensed Shisui _at all,_ and that hasn't happened for over two _years_. They'd already joked that they'd put a bell on Shisui's collar, like the cats Shisui's told him tend to wander round the Uchiha district, but now Shin thinks that he might actually have to do it because this is _ridiculous_.)

He huffs a laugh at his thoughts, but his good humour vanishes when Shisui bends down and murmurs "I need to talk to you." in his ear, and his voice alone is enough to make Shin _afraid_.

They reappear in their room, and Shin gestures at his bed, quirks a wry smile when Shisui's expression shifts as he remembers about the silencing seals. They settle down across each other, and Shin prepares to wait patiently until Shisui gets through whatever he has to say.

He doesn't have to wait long.

"The Uchiha are planning a coup d'état." Shisui announces gravely, his expression grim. "And the Hokage tasked me with stopping it."

Shin must've been quiet for too long, stunned by what his best friend's just revealed, but still conscious enough to realise that asking 'you're kidding, right?' wouldn't sit well with the current mood, because Shisui starts talking.

No, not talking. _Rambling._

"I'm sorry, I know this is a lot out of nowhere and you have enough to worry about as is, but I don't know who else to turn to and Sakura said there's nothing wrong with depending on each other, and–!"

"Shisui." Shin cuts him off, coming back to himself enough to smile and lay a reassuring hand on the terrified Uchiha's knee.

(Because that's what it was, he realises belatedly, and the realisation hits him like a brick – Shisui hasn't been distant on purpose, no, he's been _terrified_.)

"Tell me everything." He says simply, and Shisui _does._

Shin listens with rapt attention as the teen talks about the Kyuubi attack, the Uchiha Clan's founder, Madara's Sharingan's ability to manipulate the bijuu, the distrust of the Village, the anger of the Clan's Elders, the fearmongering amidst the Uchiha and finally, Shisui's own ability.

Kotoamatsukami.

Shin has never been particularly ambitious. But hearing what Shisui says about the technique, a genjutsu of the highest, most terrifying sort, imperceptible and so dangerous and taxing it can only be used once a decade, he can see why Shisui is terrified.

But also –

"You can't trust them." Shin orders, and even to his ears he sounds frantic. "Whatever happens, promise me, you won't trust them completely."

"I- what?" Shisui asks, and he's puzzled, but Shin needs this to _register_.

"What you're talking about – Kotoamatsukami – do you have _any_ idea what Danzo would do to get his hands on power like that?" he demands, and Shisui blinks.

"But the Sandaime-!"

"The Sandaime is _blind_." Shin snaps, because for all that Shisui is unlike the Uchiha, for all that he burns with the Will of Fire and sheer belief that everyone can be saved, that same fire blinds him to what's directly in front of him.

" _Listen_ to me! You cannot trust Danzo. You cannot let your guard down. And you shouldn't trust the Sandaime either. The man would sooner cull an entire Clan than risk- _oh_." Shin cuts himself off, his eyes wide as he processes what he's just said.

Oh _no._

Because he's the most affected by the conditioning out of the four of them, he can see _exactly_ what decision seems the most logical once you remove guilt and emotion from the equation.

And that- that would _break_ Shisui.

Luckily, his best friend seems blissfully ignorant to his revelation.

"What do I do, then?" he asks, and it's not hopeless, not quite yet, but far too close to it for Shin's tastes.

He lays his other hand on Shisui's knee as well and leans forward with a smile. "You _plan._ "

* * *

Shisui is sitting on his bed, elbows resting on his knees and head hanging low, staring at the floor, eyes unseeing, contemplating – not _brooding_ , fuck _you_ Shin, this is _serious_ -! – when Sakura enters.

He doesn't look up until the girl gets close and drops to her knees in front of him, forcing him to look at her or they'd butt heads.

The expression on her face is… strangely, unfathomably, _understanding_.

"You're leaving soon, aren't you." She says, but it doesn't sound like a question. If anything, she sounds sad.

"What do you know?" he asks, because he's been preparing to genjutsu Fugaku into forgetting about the coup for the last _week,_ but he hasn't told anybody that he'd decided he was going to do it tomorrow, not even Shin. Not even _Itachi_.

Then again, Sakura has had a knack for knowing things she should've had no way of knowing since he met her. From her enormous range of elemental ninjutsu for a civilian orphan, to her ability to identify Shin's medication at a glance when Shisui himself didn't even know what his best friend was taking, to little pieces of history she talks about sometimes, most often with Sai, and a quick shared glance with Shin would tell him that he hadn't been the one to teach her either.

"I know you're sad." She says quietly, then adds, "And I know you're scared. And I know that for all you play a fool, you're not one. Trust yourself, Shisui-niisan."

Shisui jerks, both at the words and at the title directed at him, but Sakura's already rising to her feet, flowing like the water she commands, but her hand falls to rest lightly on Shisui's head, small fingers gently carding through his hair.

Shisui can't read the expression on her face, but he still wants to reassure her, to say everything will be alright, even though he himself does not know that for sure.

But most importantly, he wants to know why Sakura looks like she's never going to see him again.

* * *

Less than twenty four hours later, he knows.

He is outside the Uchiha Clan's grounds, waiting until he feels Fugaku's distinctive chakra signature head towards the shrine, when he is attacked.

Danzo reveals himself from the shadows, and it is only because he was warned about it, only because both Shin and Sakura looked at him like he was going to his death the day before, only because of _two children,_ that he dares distrust the Elder.

So when Danzo attacks, Shisui doesn't stop at the genjutsu in his attempt to subdue him, suddenly wary. Danzo's countering of his genjutsu with the forbidden Izanagi throws him more than he'd care to admit, but not enough to stop the movement of his tanto, Wind-natured chakra giving the blade an edge needed to cut through the Elder's arm and sever bone and muscle alike.

But Shisui is still too slow, reeling with shock and adrenaline, to ward off the ROOT agents who come at him when their leader staggers, but the pain of having his right eye ripped out proves enough to jar Shisui into action, and he summons his flock to blind his opponents and cover his escape.

Shisui staggers away from the battle, shunshins out of the compound and closer to the Naka Shrine, and he swears when he feels Itachi's chakra follow him. He has enough time to pen a hasty note and have one of his crows drop it in his room before Itachi reaches him.

It's too soon, he realises with a jolt, he's not _ready_ , he was meant to _be there_ for Itachi, to help him find a way to save their Clan. This, what he's about to do, was only meant to be a worst-case-scenario plan in case Shin's pragmatic pessimism proved true, it was never meant to be _Plan A_.

But now, with Danzo already in possession of one of his eyes, he doesn't think he can bring himself to do anything other than what he and Shin had come up with.

His other eye is surrendered voluntarily, the pain almost not registering, and he's glad that he can't see the shock and heartbreak on Itachi's face.

"I'm sorry, cousin." He says quietly, holds on until Itachi's crow secures his eye, and lets himself drop over the edge of the cliff, ignorant of the desperate hands that reach for him.

A familiar chakra signature waiting for him at the bottom is his only comfort as he finally loses consciousness


	7. Chapter 7

**i am back! let me thank you all once again for the crazy support for this story! it really warms my heart and encourages me to write more often (i actually have a plan for the next ~10 chapters! this never happens! woo!)**

 **also, i love shisui too much to kill him.**

 **if anything is unclear or you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop them in a review!**

 **enjoy! (also, join me on my #izumideservedbetter campaign)**

* * *

"You're such an _idiot_!" is the first thing Shisui hears once he regains consciousness, and he blinks, only belatedly realising that he can't blink the darkness of his vision away because he can't _see_ anymore. "We said _jump_ not _throw yourself down!_ You could've hit your head on a goddamn rock and that would've been _it_!"

"Aniki." Just one, mild word, but the rustle of fabric and a deep, aggravated breath from Shin as he subsides tell Shisui all he needs to know about the speaker. _This wasn't part of the plan._ "You planned for this?"

"Only as a worst-case-scenario." Shin dismisses, and there are hands under Shisui's arms now, and he flinches at the touch, unable to predict or prepare himself for the contact. He's manoeuvred into a sitting position and something soft and heavy is thrown around his shoulders, and it's only then that he realises he's shivering.

"But I forgot I was dealing with an Uchiha and therefore what can go wrong, inevitably _will_." Shin grumbles, and there's a soft snort from Sakura, before small hands settle on his cheeks.

Immediately, warmth begins to course through Shisui's body, as sudden and unnatural as a fever, but preferable to the bone-deep cold from the Naka River and his still-wet clothes. It's only when he feels himself slump that Shisui realises that all his little aches and pains and stiff joints and protesting muscles have been loosened or healed to the point that they don't register anymore, and his eyes- eye _sockets_ – aren't burning anymore.

"Did you- heal me?" he asks, stupefied, feeling more than hearing Shin snort.

"Mm." Sakura hums, then a bundle of heavy, thick material is placed in his arms. "You should change, niisan."

Shisui rises to his feet, but Shin has to catch his elbow when he staggers, unused as he is to complete lack of vision and completely relaxed, healed muscles.

"C'mon, I'll help." Shin offers and leads him away, further than Shisui expects, but it becomes clear _why_ when he doesn't feel Sakura's chakra signature follow after them.

"I know bringing her along wasn't part of the plan." Shin begins as soon as they come to a stop, pulling Shisui's shirt over his head. "But the Fire Temple is over two hundred kilometres from here. I managed to put together a pack that should last you about a fortnight – clothes, food, first aid, the lot – but I realised that this might be your last chance to see a medic for a while."

Shisui feels like he's outside of his body, listening in like a bystander or an intruder; distant and dazed. "Being blind should give more credibility to my shinobi-turned-monk backstory, hm?" he asks absently, a touch hysterically, and Shin tries for a laugh but it comes out more like a sob.

He feels Shin drop his head on his shoulder and almost manages not to twitch towards his kunai pouch. "This was only meant to be a last-resort." Shin breathes against his chest, his voice pained, regretful.

Shisui carefully places his hand on his friend's head and lets himself acknowledge the bitterness that's roiling within him, the anger, the cries of _unfair! Unfair!_ that he'll never voice.

"You know how this will end." He whispers, but it's not a question. He'd slowly begun to realise, as he was falling to what could've been his death, just how far Shin can see, just how much he can extrapolate with only the bare bones of a situation to go on.

"I know nothing." Shin denies, not moving from his position. "But I have theories."

Shisui sighs. "I do, too." Then, feeling the burn of tears, he forces out, "And if the most likely one happens- they'll ask Itachi to do it, won't they?"

He feels Shin swallow, but they've never lied to each other, so he knows they won't start now. "Most likely. After you, he's your Clan's strongest."

"But loyal to the Village more than the Clan." Shisui points out, desperate to ensure they're on the same page.

"There's that too, yeah. But the Clan doesn't know, does it?" Shin acknowledges, and Shisui shudders.

"That'll be-" he starts, but can't actually get the words out.

"It will be what it will be, but it _won't_ be your problem." Shin cuts him off, and Shisui snorts, knows that, despite the harsh words, his best friend is comforting him. And succeeding.

"Save Izumi." Shisui says suddenly, an idea striking him with all the subtlety of a thunderclap. "Izumi and the children. They're innocent, they have no part in this."

"I'll try." Shin concedes, but Shisui is incensed now, burning with fury and desperation, and he grabs his friend by the shoulders and puts them face to face, even though he can't see.

"Do _better._ " He demands, and Shin must read something in his expression because he lays his hand over Shisui's and squeezes.

"I will."

They stand in silence for a few minutes, soaking in each other's presence, before Shisui pulls back and raises his hands to his best friend's face. He knows what Shin looks like, but he tries to marry what he can feel with what he can remember, and Shin lets him.

"Sakura says goodbye, by the way." Shin murmurs eventually, and Shisui's fingers falter in their task.

"Are we not going back to her?" He asks, surprised and a touch disappointed. He feels Shin shake his head.

"She doesn't want to know where you're going. She says the fewer people that know, the safer you will be." Shin explains, and Shisui feels a wave of fondness almost bowl him off his feet, but the corners of his eyes sting.

"Goddamn precious, paranoid _brat_." He breathes, but it's more of a sob than a complaint. "Tell her that- in the Uchiha shrine. After everything is- after- when it's _safe_ , under the floorboard by the door, there's something I want her to have."

Shin hums, and Shisui wonders if he's puzzled by the sudden secrecy, but his best friend just wraps his hands around his wrists and squeezes. "I'll let her know."

Another bout of silence falls over them, then Shisui sighs and drops his hands from Shin's face, dropping the pretence of 'mapping' and slumps forward, feeling Shin catch him with a start.

He's sixteen, a jounin, an ANBU, ex-ROOT, the fastest in his Clan, trusted by the Hokage with the most dangerous and secretive of missions, yet this – leaving his friends behind, leaving _Shin_ – feels like the most difficult decision he's had to make.

As testament to their friendship, Shin makes it for him. "Go." He orders quietly, helping Shisui back to his feet. "Before the Clan starts looking for you. You're slower, remember. It'll be more difficult to evade pursuit."

"It won't come to pursuit." Shisui mumbles, but the reminder firms his resolve. He takes the backpack Shin presses into his hands and swings it over his shoulders, feels the weight settle at the base of his spine, and hears a rustle of material as Shin throws a travelling cloak over him and tugs the makeshift headband down over his eyes.

It feels definite.

"Travel safe." Shin wishes him, his voice oddly strained. "I'll send you some Aburame eyewear when I can."

"Just make sure they're monk-appropriate." Shisui jokes, a last, ditch attempt at his usual humour, then he's off.

Shin watches him go until he can no longer sense his chakra, then returns to the river bank.

There's a pile of ashes where Shisui's wet clothes used to be, and as Shin approaches, Sakura makes the ground underneath the pile disappear, forming a hole whose bottom he cannot see, and a second later, the hole is gone, the ash nowhere to be seen, and the riverbank looks the same as always.

 _Erasing evidence._ Shin realises absently, at once amused and baffled by this slip of a girl who manages to think of everything, even things he wouldn't.

"You sure you don't want to know where he's going?" Shin asks, just to make sure.

"Where who's going?" Sakura replies right back, deadpan and nonplussed. "Shisui's dead."

And Shin – Shin has to admire that self-discipline, even if the look in Sakura's eyes gives him pause. There's…nothing there. Just glassy emerald reflecting the turbulent river and a face less expressive than stone.

They stand in silence for a moment, then Sakura sighs. "We should head back."

They do, and just before they enter one of the hidden passages that leads into ROOT, Shin stops her and relays Shisui's wish, as well as the location of the 'gift'. Sakura regards him for a moment then nods, and they descend into the darkness of ROOT hand in hand.

* * *

Five days after the Shisui Incident, Sakura is sent on a mission. It's a basic assassination, in and out, leave-no-trace, but the time alone gives her the necessary space to go over recent events.

Firstly, Shisui is _alive._ That is a big change from her timeline, and she doesn't want to attribute it to her presence in this world, but that's the only independent variable she's playing with; if not her, then _what?_

Secondly, Shin seems dead-set on continuing their involvement in the events that she knows will lead to the Uchiha Massacre. He seemed to have taken Shisui's words as if they had been written in his will, so gung-ho he is about seeing his promise through.

Sakura is… torn.

She'd entertained the possibility of trying to prevent the Massacre, in those first few weeks before she decided to join ROOT, but short of revealing herself as a time-traveller and sharing all the knowledge she has of the future, she could think of few other ways of stopping such a monumental event. She felt guilty, at first, but, ironically, ROOT helped with that – they drove home the lesson that guilt is a useless, unproductive emotion.

But now, Shisui's wish and Shin's insistence on seeing it through has offered an alternative path – a way of lessening the destruction that Itachi and Obito are going to wreak.

The only problem is, she knows that she needs Itachi's participation for it to work.

And that means revealing at least part of her knowledge to a _genius,_ to a man who is going to kill his family in cold blood in the name of his Village, take the blame, singlehandedly ruin Sasuke, ruin one of the most notorious organisations in the Nations, and then be remembered as a _hero._

There is no way involving Itachi isn't going to come back to bite her in the ass.

But she has to.

Sai's art is evolving to almost on par with what Sakura remembers from her life, and she knows that in a couple of weeks, life-sized boats will not be a problem for the artist. Shin, _somehow_ , has contacts in a lot of the civilian villages in the Land of Fire and has sent out letters to see who would be willing to take in a nameless orphan with only the vaguest promise of financial support.

It therefore falls to her to contact Itachi.

Sakura sighs and removes her senbon from her target's throat, wiping the needles clean before stowing them back in her pack as she eases the dead noble back to the bed.

 _Fucking peachy._

* * *

Fate, however, seems to smile down at her, because the problem of _how to contact Itachi_ is taken out of her hands – Itachi contacts her first.

Well.

 _Technically._

A week after she was sent out on her mission, Sakura returns in the early hours of the morning, when the Village is asleep and even Gai isn't training yet. Taking the opportunity for what it is, she stows her mask away and henges her outfit into the simple white-and-navy of the Uchiha, while her hair and eyes turn onyx. Her chance of discovery is low, but she doesn't want to tempt fate more than she already is, going into the Naka Shrine by herself, when there's a Clan full of Uchiha who can find her out.

But she enters without hitch.

She stays in the entryway, the big double doors a few paces in front of her covered with so many seals she doesn't even know where to start, but she doesn't need to. Shisui hadn't said 'the main hall', so she kneels, and starts searching.

The fourth floorboard by the door she tries comes away in her hand.

Beneath it, covered in dust and spiderwebs, is a scroll.

It is quite big, off-white, with burgundy ends edged with gold. Sakura takes it out and hesitates – the scroll is _old,_ that much is clear, and undoubtedly valuable.

She unfurls it.

There are two names on the inside of the scroll, one written in beautiful, careful calligraphy, the type that Sakura struggles to read, much less even dream of trying to replicate, and another in a lighter hand, almost cheerful in comparison, with bumpy, uneven characters and enthusiasm that can be felt simply through looking at the writing.

 _Uchiha Izuna._

 _Uchiha Kagami._

It doesn't strike her immediately _what_ she's looking at, but when it does, she sucks in a sharp breath.

A summoning scroll.

Shisui left her a _summoning scroll._

The _Uchiha's_ summoning scroll.

Her head swims and she has to take a few deep, slow breaths as the weight behind the action registers, then she carefully rolls the scroll back up and shoves it in her pack.

She cannot afford to be caught trespassing, much less caught trespassing and _stealing_ from the Uchiha.

Sakura bids a hasty retreat, circles back through to the forest, to where she knows one of the entries into Danzo's hideout is, but as she nears, she feels a distantly familiar chakra signature already there.

"You can drop the henge."

Sakura freezes.

She had meant to find Itachi, to broach the topic of the Massacre with him, to talk about Shisui's wish. But not like this.

She emerges into the clearing, and he's there, dressed in what she's tempted to call pyjamas, even though his hair is immaculate and he has his ninja sandals on.

"Good morning, Uchiha-san." Sakura offers instead, and keeps the henge.

"Good morning," Itachi returns, meets her gaze and holds it, then adds, " _Tori_."

Sakura sighs and drops the henge.

"What were you doing?" Itachi demands, and his tone makes it clear he does not trust her as far as he could throw her in that moment. "Why were you in the shrine?"

"I wanted to offer my respects." Sakura says simply, sees the flinch Itachi doesn't quite manage to smother.

"By trespassing?" he presses, and this time, Sakura offers him a wan smile.

"It's far from the worst thing I've ever done." She tells him honestly, and it's true, and they both know it. Sakura changes subjects when Itachi hesitates. "Question is, Uchiha-san, why were _you_ here? It's barely four in the morning."

Itachi gives her a _look_ , "I sensed an intruder. It was my duty to investigate."

"Yours? And not the guards' at the gate?"Sakura raises an eyebrow.

Now that the panic has receded and she has the opportunity to look closer, Itachi looks _wrecked._ The stress lines under his eyes are deeper than they were the last time she saw him, his eyes are bloodshot and the bags under them are lilac edging into purple.

She tries her luck.

"It looks to me more like you're having trouble sleeping, Itachi-san." She shoots back, but she keeps it as an observation instead of an accusation, and Itachi visibly startles, but whether at the bluntness or the change in address, she can't be sure. "Have you been eating at all?"

"That is none of your concern." Itachi replies icily once he collects himself, and his eyes narrow once again.

"No." Sakura agrees, because it really _isn't_ , then, "But it would've been Shisui's."

This time, Itachi doesn't even attempt to mask the flinch. "I killed him." he says hoarsely, daring Sakura to protest. "I doubt he would care for my wellbeing."

He's squared his shoulders, and his chakra is a roiling mess beneath his skin, and Sakura has no doubt that if he had his Sharingan active, she would be in trouble.

(the fact that he still hasn't activated his Sharingan doesn't strike her as odd until _after)_

"Itachi-san," she says softly, stepping forward, watching Itachi's hand twitch towards his kunai pouch. "I know the truth."

It's like watching a balloon deflate.

All the fight evaporates out of Itachi's posture, and his eyes widen, though they regard her no less warily. In fact, the suspicion in his eyes grows.

"How?"

Sakura smiles and leans closer. "I'm on Danzo's personal guard rotation." She admits, and Itachi tenses. She meets his eyes, firms her expression, and adds, "I know _everything._ "

It might be her words, might be her tone, her expression, or Itachi's desperation, but a second later, Itachi's eyes flash red and she's falling head-first into Tsukuyomi.

* * *

For one of the first few times in his life, Itachi _panics_.

The Tsukuyomi is instinctive, unintentional, but once he's got the girl in the red-and-black mindscape, he thinks this might be an _opportunity._

The girl – Tori – as yet another bewildering fact since he's first come across her, doesn't even seem scared of the cross she's nailed too, and is instead looking around the mindscape with almost _scientific_ curiosity.

"This is… incredibly elaborate." She murmurs, almost more to herself than to him, then makes a face of confusion. "I did _not_ mean to say that out loud."

"This illusion traps your mental 'self', not your physical." He answers the unspoken question. "Your thoughts are heard here."

"Then I think you should let me down." She says, or thinks, judging by her part amused, part shocked expression, and Itachi, for lack of a better way to explain it, _thinks away_ the cross and restraints, and the girl drops from the spread-eagled position to stand before him.

They regard each other in silence for a few seconds, then she speaks.

"I know what they asked you to do." She tells him frankly, and the bluntness shocks Itachi so much he can feel his pulse jump. "And I know you didn't kill Shisui, Itachi-san."

His hand is around her throat before he can stop himself, even though this is his mindscape and there are no witnesses. He looks into her eyes, his own brimming with tears, "Say it."

She doesn't need more prompting. "They asked you to kill your family." She wheezes, the words strained due to his hand around her throat but intelligible. He lets go as if burned.

"My _Clan_." He corrects, the tears falling freely now. "I have to kill my _Clan_."

The girl is silent for a moment, then she steps closer. Itachi is beginning to suspect she wouldn't know self-preservation if it hit her in the face.

"I cannot even _pretend_ to know what you're going through." She says, and Itachi snorts, because that feels like the first honest thing he's heard from anyone this past week. "But I can help make it less tragic."

Itachi snaps to attention.

"If you plan it right, nobody will know." She explains, seeing his wide eyes and clear 'elaborate _now_ ' expression. "But you might be able to save the innocent."

"Who?"

"The children, Itachi-san." She whispers, reaches out to lay a hand on his elbow. "We can save the children."

For the first time since he learned of the coup, since Shisui's death, since finding out what his Village needed of him, since being contacted by Madara, Itachi lets himself _hope_.

(he doesn't realise until later that there had been two crosses in his mindscape)

* * *

Sakura falls onto her bunk in ROOT, so wrung out she's almost tempted to ignore Shin's questioning stare. She closes her eyes for a moment, ignores the quiet shuffling she can hear, and only forces herself to awareness when she feels another body settle beside her.

Sai offers her a squished-looking box of pocky, and when she takes it with a tired smile, turns around and presses his back to hers, a show of comfort and companionship she didn't even realise she needed until it was so freely offered.

Shin subsides after a few more seconds, once it becomes clear she's not going to answer his unspoken question, and Sakura lets herself take the time she needs to process _actively changing history._

She'd spent almost six hours with Itachi in the Tsukuyomi, going over the plans and details and logistics and fielding his suspicious, probing questions as to _why_ she was so determined to help every time she tried to move on to the next stage of the plan. She's exhausted, mentally and physically, and she lets the warmth of Sai's back against hers lull her into a light sleep.

When she wakes, she has no idea how much time has passed, but she feels human enough to mutter a quiet "Tadaima."

Sai responds almost immediately, and Sakura's heart warms when she hears "Okaeri, aneue."

She reaches over and lightly pets his hair to show her gratitude, then turns to Shin who is looking at her with that same piercing gaze.

"Itachi is on board." She says simply, and watches the reaction her words provoke.

Shin practically snaps to attention, his expression turning thoughtful, and Sakura knows he has questions, but she also knows that she's neither in the mood nor in the right state of mind to play twenty questions tonight, so she adds;

"He trapped me in a genjutsu he could access as well and we spent six illusionary hours going over details. He knows everything. And I didn't have to even suggest Izumi – when I said it might be helpful to have someone older, in case not all children can get adopted, he offered her name all by himself."

"And he'll handle it?" Shin asks sceptically, and Sakura smiles wryly.

"That's what he said. And if not, the Sharingan has coercive abilities." She sees Shin wince at the reminder, clearly not too happy with the idea and has to stifle a sigh. "It was heavily implied he had some kind of history with the girl. I think he'd rather see her genjutsu'ed into caring for a bunch of little Uchiha than dead by his hand."

She feels the twitch Sai gives at her back, and she can't miss the way Shin's expression twists momentarily. Sakura mentally reviews her words, more than a little baffled, but apart from being a little more callous than she usually tries to be, she can't find anything wrong with what she said.

If Shin feels differently, he doesn't voice it, just offers her a nod and a tight smile.

They sit there for a few seconds, all three silent, the weight of what they're planning hanging over their heads like leaden storm clouds, ready to burst. Then Sakura stands, stretches, and with the crack of her spine, the silence breaks, and they shake the tension off and go back to what they had been doing as she prepares to catch up on the sleep she missed for the journey back.

She is eight and she is twenty six, she is dead and she is alive, she is ruled by her emotions and emotionless at once, but that is not what matters right now.

What matters right now is the fact that she is a step closer to bringing Danzo down, Shisui is alive, her brothers are safe, and Sasuke may end up with more than just the three living, psychopathic relatives he had in her timeline when all is said and done.

What matters is that, for the moment, she is content.


	8. Chapter 8

**i'm baaaaack from the war! (by war i mean uni) - exams are finally over so i can update!**

 **as always, thank you for everyone who's supported this story thus far! love y'all and i love hearing your feedback!**

 **enjoy!**

* * *

Sakura falls to her knees with a hiss, blood spilling past her lips and dripping onto the floor, her arm automatically moving to cradle her likely broken ribs, and it is only through sheer force of will that she does not summon medical chakra to heal herself.

(Danzo can't know. Not yet.)

She looks up, and Nezumi is staring down at her imperiously, bo held at his side almost lazily, looking like he hadn't just broken her ribs with one deadly swing of his weapon.

"You are Lord Danzo's guard." He tells her, and despite the complete lack of inflection, he still manages to sound disapproving. "Yet you are too slow."

"You said no chakra." Sakura spits at him, wiping the blood from her chin and forcing herself to her feet. Her lungs _scream_ and breathing _burns,_ but the fact remains that Danzo is watching and she needs to be _better._

Nezumi looks unfazed. "You are a fool if you think an opponent would grant you the privilege of a fair fight." He replies and shifts into an offensive stance. "Again."

The truth of the matter was that she had miscalculated. Not severely, but enough for it to show. By focusing on her Mokuton, her nature transformations, her shunshin and medical ninjutsu, she had neglected the very first thing the war had made a necessity in her old life: chakra-less combat.

Her current body is too young, too small, too weak to stand a chance in taijutsu matches with adults, and too underdeveloped to risk trying to build musculature.

Her aim with throwing weapons is good, but in the situation she finds herself now, chakra-less and with only her fists and a kunai to defend herself, she is at a disadvantage.

So she rushes Nezumi again, and plays Tsunade's favourite game of keep-away, doing her best to not let him land any debilitating hits, waiting until he tires or grows frustrated.

But Nezumi is Danzo's to the core, and he does neither, at least outwardly, but Sakura can feel the amount of chakra in his swings increase the more time passes without him landing the endgame hit.

Then, when the pain in her ribs is dulling every other sense and the inability to draw a deep breath is making black spots dance at the edges of her vision, Sakura stays in one place long enough for Nezumi to raise the bo over his head and bring it down in a punishing strike, and she feels the chakra the weapon is imbued with split the skin on her cheek as she hops back at the last second and watches it bury itself a few inches in the stone floor. Then she's palming her kunai and darting into Nezumi's space as he tries to wrench the bo free. She steps close enough to lean up and draw her kunai along his throat lightning-quick, lightly enough to break the skin but not kill or maim.

Then Nezumi recovers and drives his knee into her solar plexus, and she crumples.

"Enough." Danzo calls and rises to his feet, and Sakura pushes herself to do the same even as she notes that her head is spinning and her eyes refuse to focus. "A satisfactory display to start with." He assesses, and his sharp eye zeroes in on her. "Both of you will receive ten lashes for hits you took." Danzo orders coldly, and Sakura grits her teeth, and she feels Nezumi stiffen beside her in shock.

Either Danzo notices it, or he knows his guard, because a cruel expression crosses his face and his eye focuses meaningfully on Nezumi's throat. "I have no time for useless tools."

Nezumi twitches as if struck, then bows stiffly and disappears, and Sakura manages to maintain her composure long enough to walk out of the throne room and out of Danzo's sight, then she lets herself drop to her knees and whimper.

Her hands light green and she carefully sets her ribs and repairs the micro-tears in her lungs, then she flushes a wave of chakra through her whole body and pushes herself to her feet.

Her probationary period is over. She is on Danzo's guard, and she has his trust.

Finally, _finally_ they can start moving against him.

Despite the fact that her body feels like one giant ache, a smile makes its way onto her face, and she doesn't try to beat it back.

* * *

Two weeks later, all their preparations are in place.

Sakura meets with Itachi to set the exact day for the Massacre, and she feels only a hint of pity for the teen in front of her. It should alarm her, but they are both hollow by now. ROOT conditioning and the last few weeks has taken a toll on them, has made them something not-quite-human. She knows Itachi doesn't trust her, not fully, but the eight infants and a teenager they're going to save is reason enough for him to keep his doubts quiet, and Sakura appreciates that.

"Ōkami has found families for six of the children." She murmurs, meeting Itachi's narrow eyes with an expression that once would've been a smile, but now is just flat. "Izumi will have to take care of the other two."

"And logistics?" Itachi asks, sharp with fatigue and distrust, and Sakura's gaze grows colder, the sympathy in her expression melting into a scowl.

"Inu and Ōkami will take care of that. And once they have been homed, not even Ōkami will be able to find them." She tells the teen, narrowing her eyes. "I have told you this before, Itachi-san. Multiple times."

Itachi doesn't seem to appreciate her subtle rebuke, but she is _tired._

It's been two months since Shisui's 'death', a month and a half since she first made contact with Itachi about the Massacre, and a month of ceaseless planning and scheming and organising while trying to avoid being discovered by Danzo and his organisation of trained assassins.

Sakura's patience and nerves are frayed, and she does not have the _time_ for Itachi's doubts.

"This is what we are offering: a safe passage for the youngest children, and a chance for a new start. Take it or leave it, Itachi-san, but do _not_ question us in the final stages." She says coldly, and Itachi sags, if only slightly.

"I'll take it." He sighs, then closes his eyes. Sakura would be shocked at such a blatant show of vulnerability, but she knows that Itachi likely doesn't consider her a threat anymore.

 _Interesting._

"Two days from now." He says at last, and his voice is that of a man on his way to the gallows. "At sundown. I will have the children for you at the Shrine."

Slowly, Sakura nods and gets to her feet. Hesitating, she lays a gentle hand on Itachi's bowed head, and doesn't tense when his own snaps out to catch her wrist in a bruising grip.

"Be strong." She murmurs, pulls her hand from Itachi's hold and makes her way to the same entryway into ROOT HQ she used last time.

They will change history.

* * *

What Sakura does not expect is to be called into Danzo's throne room forty-eight hours later, nor does she expect to see five other masks she recognises from his guard rotation.

"One of our operatives is on a mission in the Uchiha Compound tonight." The man begins, his voice gravelly. "Your mission is to turn away or dispatch any ANBU, shinobi, or civilian of the Leaf you see by the compound. We cannot afford for him to be disturbed."

 _Shit, shit, shit-!_ Sakura chants, even as she joins in with the chorus of 'hai!' and rises with the others. She panics all the way to the Uchiha Compound, following the leader onto the pagoda roofs by the entry into the Compound, and only calms down when the ROOT group divides, and three agents move to the roof on the other side of the gate.

She feels the cold shiver of battle-calm steel over her nerves and emotions, and she knows what she needs to do.

She has to meet Shin at the Shrine and help him take the children down the waterfall and onto the boats Sai will have waiting for them. Then, she has to make sure Itachi doesn't get the chance to torture Sasuke and poison his brain with thoughts of revenge, or all of this will have been for naught.

And she cannot be seen.

There is only one solution.

 _The ROOT agents have to go._

Sakura palms a kunai in her pouch and glances at the setting sun.

As the last rays of golden light disappear over the horizon and the first stifled scream rings through the air, Sakura _moves._

* * *

Itachi feels his clone disperse and focuses on the memories only enough to ensure the eight infants had been transferred safely, and the genjutsu he placed on Izumi still holds.

His parents' faces, the grim, resigned, yet nonetheless proud smiles they wore as they knelt before him – he knows they will haunt him for eternity.

But now, he is faced with another problem.

 _Take care of Sasuke._

How can he, when the boy is screaming, when he sees clearly the tears and suffering he brought his own brother? His own blood? The very one he was trying to save?

"W-why did you do it?" his brother demands through his tears, glaring at Itachi, but still wanting to know his reasoning, still clinging to his ideal of his 'perfect aniki'.

But Itachi knows, deep in his heart, that his otouto's beloved aniki is long dead.

The Itachi he sees before him is but a shell.

He's played a spy for his Clan, a spy for his Village, a spy for Danzo, a spy for Shisui; he's kept secrets from his Hokage, from his family, from himself – even he does isn't truly sure where his allegiance lies, but he knows it is neither with Danzo, nor with Madara.

He has the blood of his Clan on his hands. He will never again be able to call Konoha home.

And what does he have to show for it?

His brother's life, and eight children he'll never be able to find, and a girl who he once called a friend who will live her whole life under a genjutsu.

He looks at his brother, and he feels hope.

Sasuke can be his salvation.

Itachi lets the emptiness of his soul leak into his voice as he speaks; "To test my capacity."

Sasuke jerks, looks up at him in shock, eyes wide and glistening with tears, and Itachi sees an _opportunity._

 _If he hates me, if he kills me… I'll be free, and our family will be avenged._

He feels his eyes bleed into the Mangekyo, feels a trickle down his cheeks that is not tears, and his chakra spikes, but before he can meet his brother's eyes, Sasuke crumples, and is caught by a form not much taller than him.

Itachi sees red.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hisses, not bothering to pretend to be unbothered by the interruption – they are amongst corpses, and Itachi can no longer sense Madara, though he knows the man is not far.

Right now, he doesn't care.

Sasuke could've been his _salvation_. His _absolution._

And he was _denied._

"Preventing you from making a mistake." The girl replies coldly, and lowers Sasuke to the ground with more gentleness than he would've ever expected from a ROOT.

"You crossed a line." Itachi snaps, and he doesn't even try to resist the urge to throw a barrage of shuriken at the child.

He is _furious._

"You need to leave." Is the response he gets, far too collected, even as he notes a dark stain on her side and a limp to her movements. "I killed the ROOT on patrol, but the ANBU will be here soon."

Itachi doesn't even twitch at the easy admission – his very soul is stained with the blood of at least half his Clan, and he's sure whatever humanity he might've once had has died with his parents.

He spits a curse, viler than anything he's ever allowed to pass his lips before and he feels hatred he's only ever felt directed at Danzo and his Clan's Elders, all for this _presumptuous child_ before him.

But she just stands there, his brother's unconscious form at her feet, unaffected.

"Go." She orders again, her tone harder, "And take your partner far away from this Village."

Itachi wonders, in the deep corner of his mind that isn't seething with rage and slowly crumbling with grief and guilt, _how_ she knows about Madara, but he doesn't ask.

Words are beyond him.

With one last look at Sasuke, a missed opportunity, and a sharp glare at the ROOT brat, he disappears.

* * *

Sakura waits until she can no longer sense Itachi's chakra, then she lets the breath she was holding out, and it stutters in her chest, turns into a dry sob.

The air reeks of death and gore and excrement, the stench of blood so pungent Sakura can taste iron at the back of her throat, but they managed to save eight children and a teenager, and Sasuke hopefully won't be as traumatised as he had been before.

Sakura takes a moment to compose herself, steels her nerves, and takes out a sealing scroll she brought. This will perhaps be even less honourable than killing her comrades had been, but better she do it, than let it fall into the hands of Obito or Danzo.

With a resigned sigh, Sakura sets off – she has entire libraries to loot, and a District to burn.

Hiruzen looks out the window in his office with a sigh. His heart aches at having had to destroy an entire Clan, alienate one of the Village's brightest, and condemn young Sasuke to the life of an orphan, but the Village comes first.

His sigh catches in his throat when flames engulf the furthermost part of the Uchiha District, spreading with the speed and all-consuming hunger that only chakra-fuelled fire usually manages.

 _This wasn't part of the plan._

With a wave of his hand, half the ANBU team watching his every move drops to kneel on the floor, waiting on orders.

"There is a fire in the Uchiha District. Go investigate." He orders and turns away from the window, settling at his desk.

His fingers trace over the compartment in the desk which hides the most damning, damaging reports, but he will have to wait until his clone is in his Compound and the ANBU guard halves before he can come back, sign off on the document and count Itachi's mission a success.

(With great responsibility come great sacrifices, and since beginning his second term as Hokage, Hiruzen is slowly running out of pawns to sacrifice.)

* * *

"Danzo-sama." Sakura kneels, head down, and awaits her fate.

"Report." Comes the cold order, and Sakura doesn't hesitate to deliver the speech she'd rehearsed while she was looting and burning all that was left of the Uchiha legacy.

"The Uchiha agent realised he was being watched. He attacked the surveillance team after he fulfilled his mission. There were five casualties."

"But you survived?" Danzo demands, and it wasn't scepticism in his tone, not quite, but Sakura was still wary.

"He sustained injuries fighting the team." She replies, and her hesitation isn't fully staged before she adds, "And I beat him once before."

Danzo hums. "But the mission was a success?"

"Hai, Danzo-sama."

He eyes her for a moment longer, and Sakura isn't sure what she should be seeing in his gaze, but all she can spot is a grim, vicious satisfaction.

"Dismissed."

Sakura rises, bows, and shunshins out of the throne room before she can do something stupid like _woop in joy._

 _They made it._

* * *

Two days later, Shin and Sai return to ROOT HQ, both looking worn to the bone but with the hard slant of success to their shoulders.

"Any problems?" Sakura asks, almost not wanting to know, but Shin just shakes his head.

"None. If my contacts uphold their end of the deal, those kids will grow up safe, away from shinobi and anyone who may recognise them." Shin reports and collapses onto his bunk, peeling away his armour and toeing off his boots. "And on your end?"

"Parted on less than favourable terms with Itachi, but half the Compound is ash and dust, and I have all their jutsu scrolls and history books in my possession."

Sai settles beside her, and his eyes as he looks at her seem to see right through her walls and facades.

"Yet you don't seem satisfied. Why?" he asks, and Sakura sighs, reaching out an looping an arm around Sai's neck and pulling him into a half-hug.

"Don't you understand? This is where the truly difficult part begins. We have all the _knowledge_ we need to bring Danzo down. What we need now is the physical evidence." She explains, and tries very hard not to let the despair weighing her down seep into her voice.

She fails.

With an exhausted sigh, Shin hauls himself into a sitting position and levels her with a flat, serious look.

"Are you having second thoughts?" he asks simply, and Sakura almost pulls a muscle with how vehemently she shakes her head. "Then the rest is irrelevant. We knew, all those years ago, that we were pitting ourselves against a man who has survived more than most shinobi could dream of. That hasn't changed. We, however, have. Sakura, you're on his guard rotation. Sai could be too, if we decide to show Danzo even half of what he's capable of now. With you two on the inside, gathering the evidence will be easy. But there is one more place we need to get into, and that will require the ultimate commitment."

Sakura's eyes widened.

"Surely you don't mean-?!"

But Shin just nods, a sad, resigned smile playing on his lips.

"One of us still needs to get into ANBU, and onto the Hokage's guard rotation. And for that, we'll have to be sealed."


	9. Chapter 9

**so... it's been nine months since the last update #oops, but a LOT of things have happened in between, including but not limited to; finishing second year of university, moving countries, going to Oz, and working full-time!**  
 **woop woop, three cheers for your early twenties!**

 **this chapter is where SHIT HITS THE FAN**

 **if there's anything about the takedown that doesnt make sense, fret not, it'll be explained in the next chapter! but yes, to all those asking, DANZO IS GOING DOOOOOOOOWN**

* * *

"You _can't_!" Aneue snaps, for the twentieth time in the week since aniki had first raised the looming issue of getting sealed.

"You're the brain behind this whole plan, you can't be compromised! _I'll_ go!"

"Compromised?" Shin echoes, and Sai doesn't bother masking his wince at the tone.

It's not like either of his siblings is paying attention to him, too absorbed in their _nth_ repeat performance of the same argument. Plus, Sai _likes_ emoting, especially since aneue smiles encouragingly at him whenever she catches him doing it, and he enjoys the burst of warmth seeing that tiny upwards tick of her lip brings him.

"Don't pretend like getting sealed would _compromise_ me. If anything, if I truly am as important as you claim, then ensuring that I'm unable to _babble_ is in our best interests!" Shin defends, sharp and biting and as cold as the steel of his hair.

Aneue makes a wordless sound of frustration, running a hand through her short hair to mask the aborted twitch it'd made towards the senbon holster on her thigh.

Shisui's absence is all too noticeable in these moments.

Sai had once thought that aniki was the bottle that contained the hurricane of ambition and genius that was the Uchiha, two uniquely different beings coming together to form an imposing, but controlled and complimentary whole.

Now, he's had to revaluate. Aniki is still the bottle, but he's jagged. Broken. Without Shisui there to give him shape and purpose, he's all sharp edges and shattered hearts.

And aneue, who fights with scalpel-like precision and lords over her emotions with an iron fist and a surgeon's control, takes to interpersonal relationships with all the grace and subtlety of a sledgehammer, shattering aniki's already jagged edges into fine sand. There's friction between the two, born of both being cut from the same cloth - self-sacrificial and headstrong to the point of suicide.

It's...not pleasant to be caught in the middle, because neither of them is right. Neither of them is wrong.

But both _are_ stupid.

"You're not _getting it!_ " Aneue seethes, pinning Shin with a look that would make a kunai look dull in comparison. "This whole thing, this _plan_ , is nothing more than an elaborate chess match where it's us against Danzo. You're the _queen_ , Shin. Playing Queen Sacrifice against a man who plays as the _king_ will lose us the game!"

Sai sighs, not bothering to mask this either.

 _Chess metaphors. How tedious._

His siblings had provided a united front on only one matter since the issue was raised: on the second day of the feud, Sai absently proposed that he would take the spot on the Hokage's guard.

His quiet interjection brought the slowly-escalating argument to a complete stop for all of three seconds, when both aniki and aneue looked away from each other long enough to shoot him a sharp glare and snarl a vicious _'No_!' before going back to their argument.

He'd felt touched, then, in an odd way, because aniki's protectiveness had been immediate and constant since they met; a dogma in Sai's life that he never bothered to question, because it would be the same as asking 'is water wet?'.

Aneue though – Sai knows, logically, that aneue is most likely younger than him, biologically. He doesn't know his own birthdate and ROOT didn't care enough to find it out, but he knows that he was born in the fall and he'd just turned five when ROOT took him. Aneue wasn't much older than him when she came, and she's been in ROOT for three years. Sai for five. He knows, because aniki etches little notches in the wall for every month they've been here.

There are 63 notches.

But. _But_. He brings his brain back on track, his hand moving mechanically over the paper, his ears no longer engaging enough to register the words exchanged between his siblings. He lets the sound of their conversation wash over him in a gentle wave, comforting yet unimportant, and focuses on his thoughts on aneue.

She's younger than him, yes, of that he's almost certain. But every time she looks at him, touches him, smiles at him – it took Sai a long time to find the right word, but he thinks he's got it now – it feels _maternal_. Sai doesn't remember his mother, but he thinks of the fiction books aniki used to smuggle him from his missions, or the whispered stories in the orphanage from _before_ , and the more he thinks, the more _aneue_ and _maternal_ go together.

She's cold and sharp and vicious and deadly and young, and she never asks for things, not _outright_ , but Sai thinks of her small frame and deceptively strong arms and tired eyes and thinks: _safety_.

It's why he doesn't hesitate.

He spent a week listening to his siblings' arguments, rationalised and reached one, inevitable conclusion: neither of them would be the same, after the sealing.

Aniki is too hard, too affected by the conditioning, though he hides it well, too scared of his illness, too distant, now that Shisui isn't here to humanise him.

And aneue is too brittle. Soft, for all that she hides it, more human than even Shisui had been, and though she's on Danzo's guard and embroiled in the conditioning and this plan with them, she remembers _before_ with a clarity Sai knows even aniki had long lost.

If aniki gets sealed, the last of his humanity - his ability to express himself, to scheme and plan and play chess without anyone ever knowing he's playing – will be lost.

If aneue gets sealed, her last tenuous link to her humanity will _shatter_.

In the end, it's almost anticlimactic.

Sai uses his Shisui-taught speed, Shin-taught accuracy and Sakura-taught anatomy knowledge and _strikes_.

From his vantage point on the top bunk, he knows that neither of them is looking remotely in his direction, too absorbed in each other. He grabs his mission pack and seals it away, secures the scroll to his hip and does a final check of his kit. Then, he takes a deep, fortifying breath, and doesn't let himself hesitate.

He shunshins to Sakura's side of the bottom bunk, pinches the back of her neck and catches her head before it smacks the wall, lowering it gently onto the pillow instead.

Then, he turns to Shin, who looks a step away from an asthma attack. Wide grey eyes track his move, pupils blown from his medicine, lips opening to ask, accuse, curse – Sai doesn't know. What he knows is that he has to _move_ , so he feints a strike to the solar plexus, and when Shin twists, he flashes again, behind him, and chops that same nerve, catching the back of aniki's shirt and lowering him gently onto the bed.

In a matter of seconds, it is done.

Sai spares a second to hope, briefly, childishly, that when he inevitably falls himself from the pressure, his siblings will take the same care to catch _him_ as he just did them.

He heads for the door and intentionally doesn't look back when he closes it behind him.

* * *

Sai returns two weeks later.

Sakura breathes a sigh of relief that turns into a sob. She's by his side in an instant, pulling him further into the room, shutting the door and pulling his head into her shoulder in a matter of milliseconds.

The few hours after they'd woken up, her and Shin had sat in silence, almost shell-shocked, trying desperately to wrap their heads around what had transpired.

"I'm sorry." Sakura had managed eventually, staring ahead, eyes unseeing as she realised that her selfishness had led to the very thing she'd vowed to avoid. Because there was only really one reason for Sai to have knocked then both out – non-lethally – and disappeared for a fortnight with his mission pack.

"I never even thought he'd do it." Shin had confessed, his voice equally hollow, sounding world-weary and resigned. "For the supposed chess master, that move never even _crossed my mind_."

"We made a mistake." Sakura admitted, angry when the tears she wanted to shed refused to come. "But it was his decision. We have to respect it."

Shin hadn't even twitched at her bland tone.

"The more I think about it, the more it has the potential to be a good, strategic move." He'd breathed, exhausted and frustrated, and Sakura's mind had drawn an unconscious comparison to Shikamaru in that moment. A quiet boy with a mind that never slowed down, planning ten moves ahead before their opponent even makes their first one.

"But I just-!" He'd cut himself off, voice agonised and dripping with regret, and Sakura _knew_.

"-didn't want it to be _Sai_. I know. I feel the same."

(the aftertaste of failure is bitter on her tongue, sharp and pungent and reminding her with every breath she takes and every nervous swallow that she wasn't _good enough,_ that Sai will end up with the seal one way or another, that all her years of future knowledge still _failed_ her in the simple task of making one boy's life a little easier)

But Shin had to have read something in her tone, because he'd shifted, breaking the illusion of having become a tortured statue as he came to kneel before Sakura's curled up position on the bed, resting his hands carefully on her knees as he looked up at her.

"I didn't want it to be _either_ of you. You're not _expendable_ , Sakura."

Sakura had raised her eyes to meet his, a wry smile on her face. They'd argued for over a week, growing sharper and more vicious with every new point raised, and yet she had never felt like crying, not until right then, when all Shin was looking at her with was love and regret.

"I love you both. _Equally_. Don't forget that."

She wouldn't.

Which is why, when she has Sai in her arms, safe and in one piece and _back with them_ , it's the most natural thing to shift slightly to the left so Shin can squeeze in beside her and rest his chin on Sai's head.

Under her hands, she feels tension she didn't notice earlier melt away, and Sai sags against them, subsiding with an exhausted sigh.

"Tadaima, aneue, aniki." He greets quietly, and Sakura doesn't bother stifling the second sob that escapes her.

"Okaeri, otouto." Her and Shin reply in sync, shooting each other amused smiles.

If their eyes are a little red-rimmed and their voices hoarse, none of them comment.

* * *

In the few days they take to get their bearings back, Sakura snags a solo mission – a simple bounty hunt – and earns an approving look from Danzo when she explains it as 'keeping her skills sharp and bringing in extra revenue'. The mission serves another purpose, as well.

It gets her out of the Village for the first time in months, out from under Danzo's thumb, and Sakura finally has the time to properly dedicate herself to the summoning scroll Shisui had left her all those months ago.

The actual hunt, once she's in Hidden Valleys, takes her less than a day – a B-Ranked missing-nin, for all that he's ex-Kiri, is still B-Ranked, and she was an A-Ranked jounin who'd surpassed a Sannin, once, not that long ago. She seals his body in a hunter-nin scroll and travels to Rain to collect her bounty, and then, taking a detour through Grass on her way back to the Land of Fire, she stops in Tanzaku-gai where she finally allows herself to _rest_.

She stays at an onsen and allows herself to luxuriate in the hot-springs under henge, enjoys a massage and proper dry-cleaning of her kimono top, and then she packs up, heads out of the town proper and sets up camp; the area around her hammock sealed and booby-trapped. Then, and only then does she allow herself to take out Shisui's gift and _think_.

There's nothing on the scroll that lets her know what animal it contracts with, and the names mean little to her, but the penmanship alone clues her in to the fact that both the scroll's previous owners were _far_ before her time.

Well.

There's not much else to do _but_ sign, in that case, so Sakura takes a deep breath and nicks the tip of her index finger with her senbon and traces her name on the summoning scroll in careful strokes.

When she finishes the last character, an odd feeling travels up her back and crests at the crown of her head, sending a shiver down her spine, but she ignores the warning signs and flashes through the signs which were once second nature – _Boar-Dog-Bear-Monkey-Ram-!_

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

The chakra drain makes her let out a gasp which quickly morphs into a muffled shriek, because when the smoke clears, a snow-white tiger easily as wide as Chouza across the shoulders and twice as tall is staring down at her, one eye crystal blue of the coldest ice, and the other a startling yellow.

"You are not an Uchiha." It rumbles, voice a deep, reverberating tenor, and Sakura has no doubt that the creature before her is _ancient._ "How did you come upon this contract?"

Sakura gulps, absently, morbidly amused by the fact that, if she misspeaks, the tiger could probably swallow her _whole_.

"An Uchiha entrusted it to me." She manages, forcing herself to meet the summon's eyes. "My nii-sama." She admits, the title slipping out unconsciously.

"Hn." The tiger hums, considering her, and Sakura almost laughs hysterically at the Uchiha-ism. "You speak the truth." He summarises at last, and she breathes a sigh of relief.

The tiger shifts, and Sakura twists out of the rather undignified position she'd assumed after her mad scramble backwards and into a ready-crouch, and if she reads the expression correctly, the move _amuses_ the summon.

Which, _fair enough_ , she reasons, aware that she probably couldn't kill it outright without bringing out her heaviest hitters.

"At ease, cub." The tiger instructs, lowering itself down so its stomach is on the ground, paws are crossed, and its head only about a metre above Sakura's own. "Although it's been a while since I've last seen a two-spirit, there is no deception about you. You have been tried and found worthy."

Sakura blinks.

"But- I haven't done anything." She denies, easing from her crouch to standing, frowning at the summon, who has the gall to look intrigued.

"Did your nii-sama not explain the terms of the contract?" it asks, voice echoing even in the clearing they find themselves in. "I am Boshi, of the Great Tigers, gatekeeper of the contract. One eye measures your soul," the blue eye blazes bright, the same colour as pure, concentrated chakra, "the other, your heart."

Her breath catches in her throat as the other eye burns a phosphorous, luminescent yellow for a split-second, then fades back to the earlier sunflower tones.

"And what would have happened," she asks hesitantly, curious despite herself, "if I hadn't been found worthy?"

" _Death_ is the price of deceit." Boshi snarls, spittle flying, and Sakura's heart kicks into overdrive while her chakra lashes out in her fear, latching onto the natural energy around them almost _gleefully_ after years surrounded by thick concrete.

In seconds, flowers bloom, seedlings sprout, the branches from the surrounding trees reach out and twist around her and the summon like a mockery of an embrace, and the tiger turns wide, mismatched eyes to her and looks _delighted_.

"I have not seen power like that since Hashirama." It tells her, visibly thrilled, though when the branches reach out and try to curl around him too, like they are currently twining up Sakura's legs and through her hair, they can't. "A Senju with the Uchiha's sacred contract. I never thought I'd see the day."

Sakura pauses in her task of reigning her chakra back and yanking at the vines that tightened too much around her ankles to shoot the tiger a disbelieving look.

"You're mistaken." She informs him sharply, the words ripped out of her against her will, because her self-preservation might be _poor_ but it's still _there_ , somewhere, and going against an ancient creature that speaks of the God of Shinobi like he was but another man is not something she should be doing. "I am no Senju. All I have is good chakra control. That's all I've _ever_ had."

That, too, is far too honest and bitter, something Sakura had rarely allowed herself to _think_ much less say out loud, and she narrows her eyes at the summon, her mind running through their conversation, compiling the facts and jumping to the most likely conclusion.

"I cannot lie." She accuses the tiger, untangling the last of the vines and shifting her stance back to a ready position.

"I see your mind and _soul_ , child. You cannot hide from me, not behind illusion, shapeshifting, subterfuge, or any masks you may choose to don." Boshi retorts, and for the first time, power and a hint of _threat_ threads through the tiger's voice. "And _just_ 'chakra control' wouldn't have bent the laws of nature and sent your soul through space and time. You have power, and a destiny. Stop denying it."

Sakura's hackles rise and she snarls, not caring anymore about whether or not the tiger will eat her for her cheek.

"I do not believe in _destiny_." She hisses at the summon. "I don't know what brought me here or how I'm alive, but I _killed myself_ and didn't even have the _spine_ to do it by my own hand. I'm pretty sure that cancels out any good karma I might've amassed, and it _definitely_ doesn't qualify me for some _higher purpose_." She spits the last words, daring the tiger to disagree, challenging the summon with every atom of her being.

"Whether you believe in destiny or not is irrelevant." Boshi tells her sagely and Sakura hisses in frustration at the tiger's bullheadedness. It's like listening to Neji before Naruto beat the snot out of him, and Sakura is suddenly not at all surprised that the summoning contract had belonged to Uchiha of old. Boshi fits what she knows of their Clan to a _T_. "Your fate will find you and do with you as she pleases, and you'll be a fool to resist."

Sakura bites back a curse, but she's not quick enough to stop her instinctive reaction to the words. The vines she'd ripped away earlier start to reach out again, reacting to her emotions with glee, her chakra roiling under her skin like a snake ready to strike and she hasn't felt emotions so potent in _years_.

" _No_." she snarls. " _I_ am the master of my fate and _I_ am the captain of my soul and _I_ have chosen my path and I _will_ walk it, through hell and high-water, and you can either help me or _get out of my way_."

Silence greets her words.

When she opens her eyes, she realises that the clearing around them wouldn't have looked out of place in the middle of spring, but for late autumn, it definitely creates a jarring contrast to the rest of the forest.

The infuriating tiger crouched before her, however, looks deeply satisfied and more than a little smug.

"You may not be an Uchiha, but their stubbornness runs through your blood. You are definitely worthy of the contract, and I look forward to witnessing what path you forge for yourself, cub." Boshi declares, all the earlier fight gone out of him, and Sakura is almost tempted to say that he smiles, but she's too flabbergasted by the sudden 180 in tone to be completely certain it's not just a trick of light.

"I- _what_?" she manages at last, blinking rapidly. "Stubbornness? So- the destiny talk- that was, what, a _test_?" she asks, slightly miffed.

Boshi laughs. "We tigers are allied with the Uchiha because we respect their absolute refusal to change their path once it's been decided. But we also balance them out, because–!"

"Inflexible metal will break." Sakura murmurs, the words once again ripped out of her, but she doesn't mind so much this time, well-aware of what the downside to the distinctive Uchiha tunnel-vision is.

Her summon nods, and that is _definitely_ satisfaction gleaming in those eerie, mismatched eyes.

"Precisely."

Sakura turns an assessing eye to the tiger, finally able to look past the terror and his sheer size that had so thrown her earlier, her mind replaying 'I see your mind and soul'.

"Then tell me, Boshi-sama," she hedges, tagging on the suffix and catching the glint of pleasure in the summon's expression, "what you and your ilk have to offer me."

Her question earns her a rumbling laugh that shakes the ground around them not unlike a clap of thunder.

"In your life, I will help you divine the intentions of those around you, and any those who would wish you ill or try to deceive you." He tells her with a show of sharp teeth. "And in battle, you will fear no genjutsu with me by your side."

Sakura's eyes widen and her mind jumps into gear, running through dozens of scenarios and weighing the usefulness of having a literal lie-detector and the equivalent of a Sharingan as a defence against illusion.

She grins.

"I think," she hazards, meeting the mismatched gaze of her summon with an expression that lets him know _exactly_ what she's capable of, "that we'll get along swimmingly, Boshi-sama."

Another laugh, softer this time, and before she has a chance to react, there's a warm, wet, rough tongue sweeping up her cheek and into her hair, and she squawks, but the tiger is already pulling away, disappearing in a cloud of smoke with a final, amused;

"Summon me again soon, cub."

In a matter of seconds, she's left alone in the overgrown clearing, three-quarters of her reserves gone and tiger saliva drying slowly on her cheek.

Despite everything, Sakura's blood _sings_.

She feels _alive_.

* * *

A week after she returns to base, they're finally settled enough to go back to planning their next steps.

Sai is gone for entire days, sometimes nights too, the guard rotation flexible, but Danzo's will unforgiving.

Sakura keeps much the same schedule, only not in the warm, sunny office of Hokage, but the dark, dreary maze of stone that passes for Danzo's kingdom. They are both under constant scrutiny, aware that a single misstep could be fatal, and ironically, Shin is the one with the most freedom left from the three of them.

It's that point he raises when they finally put their heads together in the relative safety of their dorm room.

"We need funds." Shin announces simply, pulling out a coded notebook only he and Shisui knew the key to. "We keep pretending that we'll get all our evidence on Danzo," he nods to Sakura, "and choose a moment to strike when the Sandaime will _have_ to be receptive," he smiles at Sai, "and it will be perfect and smooth sailing."

Sakura frowns, because nothing about this mad scheme of theirs was _ever_ going to be smooth-sailing, but Shin doesn't look like he's done, so she keeps her mouth shut and rests her head on Sai's shoulder instead, her muscles pleasantly sore from their recent spar and the whip wounds on her back almost fully healed.

"But, realistically, even _if_ we succeed, we'll be a thorn in the Sandaime's side, a security risk because we know too much."

Which… _stings_ , because uncovering treason shouldn't be a double-edged sword, but Sakura _knows_ Shin's right, though-!

"There isn't much we can do against that, at this point." She sighs, wry and more than a little bitter.

"Maybe not." Shin agrees, forever rational. "But while information makes the world go round, money is the language everyone speaks, and we'll need it, whether we're well received or not."

Sakura frowns, an expression she feels more than sees is mirrored by Sai.

"Aniki?" he asks, and though the shift in tone is minimal, it's still _there_ , and it's enough for Sakura to hear _confusion_ clearly, and a Sai that emotes despite the seal on his tongue will forever be something she'll be grateful for.

Instead of replying verbally though, Shin pulls out a blood-splattered, clearly stolen Bingo Book, flicking it open to a random page.

"I'm the only one that's able to move with relative freedom and who will get missions outside the Village with any regularity." He tells them flatly, eyes trained on the photo of some B-Ranked Iwa kunoichi. "Not to mention that my fighting style is the best designed for this, out of all of ours."

"You want to start collecting bounties." Sai states tonelessly, the earlier confusion giving way to contemplation.

"There's freedom of movement and then there's tempting fate." Sakura points out, but she knows with avid certainty that Shin's announcement is more of a courtesy notice than a point up for debate.

Shin smiles, sardonic and self-deprecating.

"Every breath I take is tempting fate." He replies wryly. "At least this way, I can be productive."

Sakura weighs their options in her mind and she sees the logic of what Shin is suggesting, but the sheer forward-thinking needed to see past the ever-elusive goal of 'eliminate Danzo' to 'what happens once we've succeeded and how to get there' astounds her still, and the earlier comparison to Shikamaru returns.

Shin sighs again, as if weary at the prospect of having to explain himself.

"We're doing this so we have a chance at a future. So that Sai has a childhood. So that I don't have to play roulette with what will kill me first – the disease or the opioid addiction."

The frank admission is enough to jar Sakura to attention, drawing her eyes to the liquid silver of her brother. Shin smiles, the expression devoid of humour.

"What's the point of planning for a future in Konoha if we end up without a yen to our name and a kage who doesn't want anything to do with us?"

It's a valid point, and definitely something to consider, but Sakura still snorts.

"That's the most convoluted way to argue for financial independence that I've ever heard." she announces when Shin's declaration has had a few seconds to settle, drawing a quiet breath of a laugh from Sai.

Shin also quirks a smile, though he arches an eyebrow at her. "You're surprisingly amenable." He notes, and his tone makes it clear that that's the last adjective he expected to use.

Sakura shrugs, lifting her head from Sai's shoulder to shoot Shin a small grin.

"I happen to agree with you. We will need financial independence once we get out, whether the Hokage wants our services or not. It just didn't even register on my radar what with the dozen other, potentially life-threatening, straight up _insane_ things on our plate."

Shin laughs, sharp and surprised and clearly startled, and inclines his head in acknowledgement of her words.

And with that, the final stage is in motion.

* * *

A month later, Sakura has met most of her smaller summons, introduced them all to Shin and Sai and snagged one more solo mission outside the Village to familiarise her summons with her fighting style.

Though that is the extent of good news, for the stress of what they've committed themselves to finally begins to dog not just their waking moments, but their sleep too, and things begin to pull apart at the seams.

Three months after that, Sakura is finally able to appreciate the value of ROOT's conditioning programme – with the explosive mix of stress, the constant lack of sleep, inadequate nutrition and her reincarnation secret, she constantly feels like she's walking on eggshells whenever she's forced to leave their room, and with Sai on the Hokage guard and Shin always planning their next move, even that has stopped feeling like a sanctuary.

For the first time in three years, being able to slip into the shell of the unfeeling ROOT agent Danzo had so cleverly engineered starts to become a _relief_ , and it is only when she starts to have trouble slipping back _out_ that a part of her panics.

But even then, it's distant, half-hearted at best; the reason _why_ she should care eludes her, and emotion has become unavailable to her some time back.

(the fact she can't pinpoint the exact moment should worry her. it doesn't.)

Six months after Sai joins the Hokage guard rotation, Shin confronts her about it.

Or, more accurately, ambushes her as she walks into their room and smashes her head against the wall.

Hard.

"What the fuck?!" the eighteen-year-old, war-veteran part of her psyche takes the reins and snarls, rounding on Shin, bleeding vengeance, while the nine-year-old in her is preoccupied with blinking back the tears that have sprung to her eyes and biting down on her wobbling lip. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"Cognitive recalibration." Shin replies, almost sunnily, absently tracking the green-lit hand she brings up to heal the bump on her head and check for any subdermal damage.

Sakura blinks.

" _Why?_ "

Now that the pain and the shock have subsided, the disparate parts of her psyche fuse back together, and Sakura feels the most like herself than she has in _weeks_.

"You were getting too reliant on the conditioning." Shin informs her sharply, his expression morphing from sunny to disapproving in seconds. "It's easy, to not have to feel, but that is _exactly_ why you have to fight it. Why you _have_ fought it before."

Sakura sighs and collapses on her bed, able to think clearly for the first time in a while.

"I barely noticed." She confesses after a quick check that Sai isn't in his bunk, and lies down, careful of her still-tender head.

"I know." Shin says simply.

"How's Sai doing? I don't think I've asked him in…too long." She asks eventually, craning her head on her pillow to look at Shin who's now settled on his own bunk and set to polishing his katana.

"Better than you, that's for sure." Shin offers, then closes his eyes. "If there's one thing we did well in, it was preventing the conditioning from taking root in his mind. So he knows how to act and how to _pretend_ , but he's still _himself_."

"That's…the first good news I've heard in a while." Sakura admits, lets herself melt into the mattress with another deep sigh. "I think…I think we might be able to move, and soon."

Because the things she's seen while standing guard at Danzo's elbow make her head spin when she thinks of them. Reports, sit-reps, mission logs, casualty logs, correspondence with foreign leaders and villains – all enough to convict a man even of Danzo's calibre _three times over_ , and that's without even _touching_ the mess of the Uchiha Massacre.

"I think so too." Shin murmurs, then sets his katana aside and rests his elbows on his knees, leaning forward on the bed. "What was the team Sai wants in the office when we break the news?"

"Team Ro." Sakura replies, having been aware enough to listen to the justification when Sai had given it, even though the conversation feels like she's recalling it from behind a veil. "They have an ex-ROOT Mokuton user. And Hatake knows of ROOT's existence. More difficult for Sarutobi to sweep it under the rug if there're witnesses who'll know what we speak of."

And isn't that a mindfuck and a half, now that she's thinking of it.

Kakashi in her first life had been an enigma, until the end. Elusive and untouchable in her genin and chunin days, then present but indomitable during the War, untouchable in the way of the heroes of old. Now, she's going to be relying on him for getting them out of here. _Using_ him, really, as leverage against Sarutobi's sentiment for his old teammate.

"Then we better iron everything out." Shin announces, getting to his feet and throwing a blanket on the floor.

Outwardly, Sakura agrees, and waits as he goes to fetch Sai.

Inwardly, with the blessing of her tigers, she hatches her own plan.

* * *

("Kyoko-chan," Sakura asks her smallest, most unobtrusive summon, a cub that could almost pass for a house-cat if not for the distinctive colouring, "where do the tigers stand in the hierarchy with the other summons?"

"We're a noble summons, Sakura-sama, and one of the last surviving ones. Few would question us."

"What about, say…the monkeys, or the snakes, specifically?"

Kyoko pauses in her grooming long enough to level Sakura with an oddly penetrating look, at odds with the youth of her stature.

"While Manda may not respect our seniority, Aoda is far more amenable. And Enma is a child, as far as summons go, barely older than his master. What are you angling at, Sakura-sama?"

"I suppose what I want to know is… is there a way to make other summons just…forfeit? If someone like Enma had to fight Boshi-sama, for example?"

Kyoko laughs, though it sounds more like she's hacking up another furball on Sakura's bed.

"Enma would run at the sheer _notion_ of the Tiger Summons having a new summoner."

Sakura smiles.

"What about at my _sight_?"

Kyoko's eyes gleam with understanding, and the plan solidifies.)

* * *

Kakashi stands in the Sandaime's office, the ANBU mask over his face narrowing his view only to the desk and Sarutobi behind it, aware of Tenzo by his side more by the man's chakra than because he can see him.

He thinks he catches movement by the open window, something small and white disappearing over the frame, but he dismisses it as fatigue. Maybe a fair dose of paranoia too.

(It wouldn't be the first time.)

He stifles a sigh as Tenzo rattles off another toneless recounting of yet another mission assigned to Team Ro, not even following the words anymore.

What does it matter anyway? It's always a variation of 'mission successful', 'objective fulfilled', 'injuries sustained', or, occasionally, an explanation of encountered complications they had to overcome.

Bland. Boring. Monotone. The only spice to his life is whether the mission is A or S-Ranked, and, on particularly interesting days, whether it'll go on his record _at all_ or whether Konoha will bury any trace of it, and his team along with it, should they fail.

He's twenty-three years old, in his prime, both as a shinobi and as a man, only his apartment is gathering dust and he can't _remember_.

Can't remember how long it's been since he's last been in the Village for longer than a few days at a time. Can't remember the name of his next-door neighbour. Can't remember when he last ate something that wasn't rations or reheated in the ANBU HQ microwave. When the last time he wore something that wasn't his uniform, be that ANBU or jounin was. When he last went out for a drink with friends – or acquaintances, really. Teammates. Barely that, sometimes.

Yet he knows precisely how long it's been since he lost everything. _Again_.

Three thousand, two hundred and ninety-seven days since the Kyuubi attacked. The Village mourned the ninth anniversary of the Yondaime's death while his team was out on the mission Tenzo's currently reporting on.

(Kakashi never stopped mourning.)

He wonders how many times Naruto got beat up this year, or whether the kid had learnt to stay in his apartment on his birthday.

Or, perhaps more accurately, whether the ANBU on his guard duty didn't have a personal vendetta against the kid and _did their jobs_.

Then, he's jerked out of his thoughts quite rudely by movement in his periphery, and a lot of things happen in quick succession.

The Hokage's ANBU guard, always hidden behind at least two genjutsu, suddenly materialises and promptly collapses, four of the five agents laying boneless on the ground around the room.

At the same instant, a masked figure appears on the windowsill besides the last of the Hokage's ANBU, and the difference between the masks couldn't have been clearer.

 _ROOT_. Kakashi thinks distantly, feeling Tenzo tense beside him, his hands rising automatically, one to his kunai pouch, the other shaping Raikiri, but the crouched figure moves faster, hand sweeping the air with fingertips glowing blue, and Kakashi's body freezes, immobile.

Beside him, Tenzo stops moving as well, though it's also with the unnatural stillness that Kakashi himself is fighting against.

 _A puppet master in Konoha._ Even for Shimura, that's an achievement.

King Enma materialises by the Sandaime's side, staff ready as Sarutobi gets to his feet, far smoother than most would presume given his age, but the puppeteer bares their free hand with a cat-like hiss, palm bared and pointed at the Monkey King, and the summon's eyes widen at something Kakashi can't see, then, in a move perhaps more shocking than someone actually attempting to infiltrate the Hokage's office, Enma _disappears_.

Once the Monkey King is gone, the puppeteer snaps their wrist and chakra threads snag Sarutobi as well, stilling his movements with the same unnatural rigidity.

"Forgive us, Hokage-sama. I wish there was a better way to do this." The ROOT breaks the silence, and even with the mask, that voice is _young_. "But Danzo has infiltrated your personal guard, and we are not without watchers ourselves."

"You're committing treason." Sarutobi comments sharply, visibly fighting against the threads restricting his movement, and Kakashi is doing his level best to channel his lightning chakra down the damned things too, _anything_ to dislodge them.

"In order to uncover even _more_ treason, yes." The ROOT agrees, and Kakashi is momentarily blindsided by the… _cheek_? the voice is devoid of humour, yet the words are wry, as if Sarutobi's observation was something funny. "Inu."

The other agent, the actual ANBU guard that Kakashi had almost forgotten about, pushes his mask up just high enough to reveal his mouth, then sticks his tongue out.

Kakashi sucks in a quiet breath.

At the back are five thick, familiar lines, and he's almost certain Tenzo's stopped breathing as well.

"I'm sure Hatake-san and agent Kinoe are familiar with that particular pattern, which should lend credence to my earlier words." The ROOT explains, and the shiver that goes down Kakashi's spine has nothing to do with the complete lack of inflection.

 _Hatake-san. Agent Kinoe._

Kakashi's still wearing his ANBU mask and the cloak denoting his status as a Captain of the shadow ranks, the hood up. His hair is covered. His face is covered. Any defining feature that could be used to identify him is hidden away. As is Tenzo's, and though the latter isn't wearing a hood, his brown hair is almost as inconspicuous as if he were – it's _brown_.

And yet.

The ROOT didn't hesitate. There was not a trace of doubt in their voice.

 _Shit._

"Unhand me and my agents, and perhaps I'll be inclined to listen to you." Sarutobi demands, and behind the safety of his mask, Kakashi winces.

From the ROOT's momentary twitch, he's willing to bet the Sandaime hasn't won himself any favours.

There is a sigh, almost too quiet, but Kakashi's ears still catch it, and he startles.

"I'm afraid that's not good enough." The ROOT replies, sounding almost sad, then the stillness gives way to motion that's almost too fast for Kakashi's to see.

 _Almost._

The threads drop just as suddenly as they appeared, but the ROOT is already moving, snagging their companion by the back of his armour and throwing him bodily out of the window, hissing as one of the kunai Kakashi throws nicks their shoulder, but they're still in motion, lounging for the door to the office, though not to escape, no, Kakashi realises a beat too late, when the ROOT's fingers snag on a hidden latch and then slam their hand against the wall with a burst of chakra.

The whole room seems to pulse for a few seconds as seals bloom from under the agent's hand and light up the walls from floor to ceiling, glowing golden and burning with power before they suddenly fade and all that's left is deadly silence and the quiet drip of blood from the tanto Tenzo had stuck in the ROOT's gut.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Sarutobi snaps, standing as tall as he can and exuding power but not approaching, and Kakashi _knows why_.

That seal was designed by Minato. Kakashi was there when the blond painted it. But it had _never_ been used. _Nobody_ , save for perhaps Kakashi himself, Sarutobi, and maybe Genma should know of its existence, much less how to find or activate it.

 _Absolute security_. No one in, no one out. Disarmed only once all present in the room bleed on the sealing array.

"The meaning, Lord Hokage," the ROOT breathes, pulling out Tenzo's tanto with one hand while the other lights green – ( _without hand-signs-!_ ) – and covers the wound, knitting it up in record time, "is that Shimura Danzo has been conspiring against you for the better part of four decades, and we have enough evidence to help you bring him down for good."

Sarutobi looks as if the ROOT had slapped him.

Then, Tenzo breaks the silence, the first sign that he hadn't been replaced by a particularly life-like statue.

"You said his name." he murmurs, and the observation is innocuous, almost obvious, but-!

 _But._

The seal.

 _Underneath the underneath._

"Yes." The ROOT agrees, pushing up their mask and sticking out their tongue like the ANBU guard had done, but unlike their companion, there is no seal to be found. "The seal is demanded only of those selected to infiltrate the Hokage's guard, to prevent precisely this situation from occurring. You try betray ROOT, you die." A shrug, as if it's a simple fact of life, and not insanity.

"This should hopefully help you understand the reasoning behind our rather unorthodox method of gaining an audience with you, Hokage-sama." The ROOT explains, and Kakashi reckons that if their face were uncovered, there'd be a sardonic smile on it.

"'Unorthodox' is about right." Sarutobi sighs, but he seems more resigned than angry now, though his eyes are still hard where they're trained on the agent. "Which is why I find myself in need of more reassurance. Have you got an example of the 'evidence' you speak of?"

"I do." A breath, followed by a direct address that startles Kakashi, "Hatake-san, I am going to move my right hand to my left elbow, and will require a pulse of chakra to unseal the evidence. Please do not stab me when I move."

It is only then that Kakashi realises his hand has been hovering over his kunai pouch since the seal on the walls was activated, his muscles wound so tight that relaxing them physically hurts him. He nods, once, jerky and startled, and the ROOT proceeds to do just as they'd described, only instead of unsealing a document, a… _bird?_ springs up from their forearm, black-and-white and cartoonish. It spreads its wings and pushes off the ROOT's arm and flies to the Hokage's desk, where it hops onto a blank piece of paper that had been lying there, long forgotten, and- _dissolves_.

Or, rather, Kakashi realises with no small degree of incredulity, turns into words on the page. Words that make the Sandaime's face turn the colour of the very paper they're written on, and Kakashi feels like he's not going to like what comes next.

"What…is this?" Sarutobi asks at last, eyes frantically flickering over the contents of the page in front of him, mouth slack.

"The technique that won my partner his place on your guard." The ROOT announces, and there's an edge of something that sounds like vicious satisfaction in their voice. "And as for the report in front of you, it is a copy of communications exchanged between Shimura Danzo and the Head Ninja of the Kumogakure envoy, which culminated in the Hyuuga Affair six years ago. Their correspondence includes guard rotations, weaknesses in the Hyuuga Compound, and instructions for how to word the treaty so Konoha's retaliation in the event of their capture would be seen as an infraction on our side."

Kakashi's breath catches in his throat.

If this is the type of 'evidence' the ROOT has at hand – if the casual air with which they explained the contents was anything to go by – then the ever-elusive head of ROOT is as good as done for. There will be no coming back from this, not if the originals are accessed, which will need-!

"You said 'copy'." Sarutobi recalls, likely zeroing in on the very same thing Kakashi had realised himself. "In order to move against Danzo," from the tightening at the corners of the man's eyes, Kakashi knows that such an idea still pains him, despite having clear proof of the kind of atrocities Shimura has been committing in his name. "I'll need the originals."

"And you'll have them." The ROOT promises. "As we speak, my partner is waiting on my signal to break into Danzo's records and grab them. Inu, who you had the questionable pleasure of meeting, briefly, will have hopefully taken the opportunity granted by the change of plans I'd forced upon him to create a diversion."

"If it is my order you're waiting for to give the signal, you have it." Hiruzen informs the agent with a frown, eyes narrowing in contemplation. Kakashi's gut tells him it's not quite so simple, his mind stuck on something the ROOT had said, a frown of his own forming behind his mask.

"Change of plans?" he echoes, unable to help himself, and if he's reading their body language right, the agent seems amused at his question.

"Yes." The ROOT sighs, nodding towards him, then turning to the Hokage, the line of their shoulders growing tense and unforgiving. "You see, Hokage-sama, Inu wasn't supposed to get defenestrated, and I kept the existence of the security seal a secret from my brothers despite the many months we've spent planning for this very moment all for one reason."

Something in Kakashi's chest tightens, and the earlier feeling of foreboding returns.

"The _reason_ I haven't given the signal yet is because I am not quite so trusting as my brothers to believe in a free trade of information, so I will be needing some reassurances of my _own_."

Sarutobi's frown grows more severe. "What do you mean?"

"The evidence you speak of. We can provide it, yes. But you and I both know that what's in it won't _just_ affect Danzo."

Sarutobi seems to stop breathing, but the ROOT is undeterred.

"I have seen reports of missions so horrific, so brutal and amoral, that, should they ever get out, they'll put Konoha in the same category as Kiri during the time of Bloody Mist. But they're not all twisted power-grabs of a madman of a bygone era – a lot of those reports have your or your predecessors' seal upon them. All technically above-board. Every mission too bloody to go on permanent record, even your ANBU's personal record, for fear of ever being discovered, is carefully catalogued and stored in Danzo's kingdom."

The ROOT waits a beat, lets the weight of their words sink in, before concluding in a chillingly empty tone; "So I need my reassurances, Hokage-sama, that once you have that evidence in front of you, you won't try to _disappear_ me and my brothers like you've disappeared the reports of the last six missions Hatake-san's team has gone on."

"What do you _want_?" Sarutobi bites out, and Kakashi is torn between horrified and awed, his eyes trained on the tiny ROOT.

"Safety." Comes the immediate response. "Inu is still of Academy age. Let him have a chance at a childhood. My other brother, Okami, is ill, badly so. He needs long-term medical attention if he has any hopes of ever pulling through. And most of ROOT forces are loyal to Danzo because it is the only thing they've ever known. Instead of _decommissioning_ them, take them out of the Village, maybe under a Yamanaka, try to socialise them, let them experience _life_. A bulk of the force will be too old for reconditioning, but they should be able to be absorbed into ANBU fairly seamlessly. Just- there has been enough death and cruelty, Hokage-sama. _Please_."

It's that single word at the end that jars Kakashi, and going by the way the Sandaime seems to age a decade in the span of seconds, he feels the same, but not enough so as to give in.

"I notice you didn't include yourself in your bid." He observes wearily, though his gaze is sharp.

Kakashi thinks he hears a mumble that sounds oddly like 'queen sacrifice', before the ROOT does perhaps the most unexpected thing to date.

The agent folds in on themselves, going down to one knee in the characteristic ANBU bow.

"I offer myself in service to Konohagakure, in whatever capacity she may require of me."

Privately, Kakashi thinks even Shikaku wouldn't have played his hand better.

Sarutobi, for once sounding every year of his age, sighs. "I would like to know the face of the devil with whom I've just made the deal."

There's a pause, brief but startled, before the figure obediently reaches up and removes the blank mask and attached hood, and –

 _Oh._

* * *

 _Pink._

 _Her hair is pink_. Is all Tenzo can think for a few seconds, his brain completely fried.

Then-

She's a _child_.

At eighteen, Tenzo is not exactly the paragon for maturity himself, but the ROOT agent still crouched in front of the Sandaime's desk is easily half his age, if not younger.

A _child_.

He tries to marry the cold, apathetic tones of the ROOT that had argued with the Hokage not five minutes back with the pink-haired, prepubescent child kneeling before his desk and his brain short-circuits.

By the way Kakashi-senpai goes tenser than a bowstring, he's willing to bet his taicho is having similar issues, compounded perhaps by the fact that the girl who's just done her level best to singlehandedly bring down ROOT is even younger than Weasel was when he joined them.

Her mouth is a flat, displeased line, eyes a cold, flinty jade that promise no quarter nor compromise, and her skin is deathly pale, a testament to years in Danzo's shadowy employ. The girl wears the expression of an embittered war veteran, and the worst thing is how _normal_ it looks on her tiny body. How easily her face falls into it.

"Do I have your word, then," the girl asks, rising slowly from her crouch, "that when I deliver you the evidence you need to bring down Shimura, you will guarantee my brothers' safety, as per my terms?"

"You have my word." The Sandaime promises, sitting heavily behind his desks. "May I know your name?"

An odd expression crosses the girl's face, and if possible, her eyes harden even more.

"Tori."

 _There are no names in ROOT._

"Very well. Kakashi will go ensure your partners don't encounter any trouble delivering the evidence, but for that to happen, we need to disarm the security seal." Sarutobi informs the room at large, and Tenzo dutifully nicks his finger and lets a few drops of blood fall on the seal-matrix.

He listens as the girl gives Kakashi directions to the ROOT exit her brothers are going to take, then watches as another bird rises from her arm and flies out of the window, Kakashi following after it.

Once it is only him, the Hokage, and the ROOT agent, Sarutobi's expression steels.

"The moment any mention of Hokage involvement in Danzo's doings becomes known to the public, the protection you bargained for so hard for your brothers becomes null and void."

Tori jerks her head to look at the man so fast Tenzo hears her neck crack. Her eyes are wide, fear and anger and disbelief warring behind them in equal measure, and it says something to her sheer willpower that even years under Danzo's thumb, she's still able to express them.

Behind his mask, Tenzo's eyes are wide, too, and trained on the Sandaime, a bitter taste on his tongue.

"Your brothers' happiness for your silence. These are the final terms." Hiruzen summarises, eyes not leaving the girl's until she nods, just once, jerky but final, and all traces of emotion vanish from her face.

Then, there is a distant boom of an explosion, and moments later, Kakashi appears on the windowsill, arms laden with files and scrolls. Two figures tumble into the office behind him, one also carrying a stack of files, the other singed in some places and still-smoking in others, but all three radiating satisfaction, and Tenzo has no doubt as to what is in the folders they are carrying.

With a satisfaction he never thought he'd ever feel, he offers Kakashi a hand, then turns to the Hokage expectantly, a smile blooming behind his mask.

 _Danzo is going down._


	10. Chapter 10

**i LOVED the positive response to the last chapter so, surprise! got the next one ready and rearing to go in less than a fortnight! thank you to all who took the time to review!**

 **as for ages:**

 **sakura is 9, sai is 10, shin is 15, shisui 17 - the rest of the rookie 9 would be around 9/10 yo as well.**

 **hope that clears things up!**

 **enjoy!**

* * *

Shin is _furious_.

He'd thought the emotion beyond him, thanks to Danzo's efforts, but apparently, his siblings have a unique talent of subverting even the most deep-rooted conditioning with their sheer _stupidity_.

 _Years_ of scheming, months of going over the plan step-by-step, explaining why it is absolutely _essential_ that they follow it _to the letter_ , and Sakura throws it all away on a _whim_.

The explosion that shook the ROOT HQ wasn't planned.

Sai sneaking into the archive room, singed and smoking, moments after Danzo rushed off to investigate the explosion, nabbing seemingly-random files and sealing them away before grabbing a pile of folders about Danzo's involvement with Orochimaru, _wasn't planned_.

Hatake Kakashi waiting at the mouth of the exit they rush to, wrestling the files and folders Sai'd grabbed from his arms and jumping in the direction of the Hokage's Office was most _definitely_ not planned.

Finding Sakura inside the office, _maskless_ and grim-faced but with a hard, victorious glint in her eyes when they fall on the folders is the final straw, but Shin bites his tongue and turns towards the Hokage, keeping his mask on even as he carefully stands and deposits his pile of reports on the Sandaime's desk.

"Any complications?" The Hokage asks sharply, his eyes hard and trained on Hatake.

"No visible signs of pursuit." The man informs tonelessly, and Shin bites back a snort.

"Pursuit isn't what you should be worried about." Sakura speaks up, drawing all eyes to her. "Speed is of essence right now. The moment Danzo discovers these files are missing, he will make his escape. You have maybe minutes, Hokage-sama, before any chance of damage control for this fallout slips out of your hands."

As he listens to that detached, matter-of-fact tone, Shin wonders just how _long_ Sakura had been planning this sabotage. He doesn't think he'll like the answer.

The Sandaime's sharp gaze turns to Sakura and he assesses her for a few seconds, then nods, almost imperceptibly.

"Kakashi. In a few seconds, I want you to gather your squad and any ANBU you know haven't been supplanted by ROOT and go arrest Danzo. I don't care what charges you give, though treason should suffice. Take him to the lowest cells in T&I." he orders, then turns to the other ANBU. "Tenzo. Go get me Ibiki and Inoichi, then every Clan Head who's in-Village and the Council. It is time they are informed of Danzo's machinations, and continued treachery."

Hatake stills for a second, the files in his hands slipping before he conspicuously unfreezes and puts them on the desk.

"Sir," he begins, stilted, visibly grappling for the right wording, "I mean no disrespect, but I do not think it is wise to leave you…here." He finishes lamely, but the Sandaime looks grimly satisfied.

"Not to worry, Kakashi. I believe we have reached an accord." And that wording alone _grates_ at Shin, especially when Sakura doesn't even _twitch_ , a reaction more telling than if she had snarled.

Doubt and disbelief radiate from the Copy-nin, but Sai's profile of him is proven correct – the man is a good, if traumatised, little foot soldier, so he only nods and, when no more orders are forthcoming, him and his ANBU partner _blur_ and disappear.

With the ANBU agents gone, Sai shifts, unconsciously drifting towards Sakura for comfort and security, which she just as unconsciously offers, moving so her shoulder is half-an-inch in front of his, her body shifting almost imperceptibly to put herself between the boy and the Hokage.

When Shin turns his gaze to the Sandaime, there is a millisecond where the expression on the man's face is that of pure calculation, like a demolition worker searching for weak points to topple empires with a single strike, before it morphs into one that is nothing short of _paternal_.

Shin distrusts that expression _so much_.

"Inu and Okami, I believe." The man intones gently, as if afraid to spook them, every inch the kind-hearted, wizened Professor Konohagakure's propaganda agents paint him as. He must take their silence for agreement, because he rises, and, in a move that makes Sai twitch and Sakura narrow her eyes in blatant suspicion, inclines his head in a not-inconsiderable bow. "The Village thanks you for your sacrifice."

 _Clever._ Shin thinks, glancing over at Sakura whose lip is curled down in clear distaste, a micro-expression, as far as most would be concerned, but to Shin, it's all he needs to know she buys the Sandaime's performance even less than he does. _Dastardly, but clever. If he were dealing with normal shinobi,_ he glances at Sai, who is staring at the Hokage with wide eyes, clearly startled, _or,_ he amends wryly, _just Sai, it might've even worked._

"It was not entirely selfless." Shin points out, drawing the man's eyes onto him, and he makes sure his posture remains as loose and non-threatening as he can make it, despite the vice-like pressure around his lungs at the dry, summer air.

"Perhaps." Sarutobi agrees. "But it was nonetheless achieved by putting yourself in considerable danger and inconceivable strain, and for that, Konoha is in your debt."

 _Konoha._ Shin laughs inwardly. _Not 'I' am. Slippery old coot._

"And it is in the interest of repaying that debt that I'd like to ask you to remove your masks." The Sandaime continues, and Shin frowns. "For good, if you'd please. And pick a name that is not a codename."

Shin really wants to exchange a _look_ with Sakura, but without his mask, that's going to be difficult, so he sighs and reaches up to take the cursed wolf mask off, then meets the Hokage's eyes with a wry twist to his lips.

"Shin, Hokage-sama." He informs the man, not dropping eye-contact until Sarutobi does in favour of looking at Sai when he introduces himself too.

"Shin, Sai, and…?" the Sandaime trails off meaningfully, a hint of a challenge in his eyes when he looks at Sakura, and his sister's lip twitches into a shape that's half-way to a snarl.

"Sakura." She bites out, not bothering with honorifics, only her complete lack of inflection saving the reply from sounding as rude as was doubtless intended.

"Very well." Sarutobi acknowledges, satisfied. "Sai-kun, your sister has brought to my attention that you are of Academy age and would benefit from experiencing what Konoha has to offer to its children. Should you wish it, you could join the current fourth year class, since I dare doubt the level would pose a problem."

Sai freezes, and Shin is only marginally better off.

Sakura did _what now?_

But when he glances at her, his sister looks like she'd like nothing more than to introduce Eki-sama, her biggest, most bloodthirsty summon, to the God of Shinobi, and get front-row tickets as the saber-tooth tigress takes Sarutobi's throat as her _lunch_.

"And Shin-kun, I have been made aware of your…illness." The vice around Shin's lungs tightens.

 _That's_ my _secret-!_ He wants to scream, but he can barely draw a shallow breath without it catching; screaming would send him into a fit, and this time, there are no convenient seals around him to block the sound of him suffocating on his own mucus.

"And while the hospital isn't as it once was under my student, Konoha still has the best med-nin in all the Shinobi Nations. Ensuring your continued health is the least the Village can do for what you've given her."

 _And Sakura? What of her?_ Shin wants to ask, but at this stage, drawing the breath he needs for words is beyond him, so he's stuck in limbo until Sai breaks it-!

"We accept, Hokage-sama." His brother announces, quiet yet final, and Shin gasps in a breath and resigns himself to the indignity of the coughing fit he's been suppressing. But just as the first wave of nausea and cramps come, he feels a hand between his shoulder blades, a pulse of chakra, and then-!

His airways are clear.

He can't help the knee-jerk reaction to glance back, and he catches the dying green tinge of medical jutsu and hears a quiet _splat,_ and when he tracks Sakura's fingers, he spots a tiny glob on the floor, blood-tinged and viscous, but no larger than the ring of a kunai.

He looks back to Sakura, but she merely raises an eyebrow, as if unaware of what she'd just done or feigning ignorance and _Shin_ -!

Shin wrestles his utter disbelief firmly down and forces it under lock and key, to be dealt with when they are away from the prying eyes of the Third and he can fully process what Sakura's just done.

 _(she cleared his airways_ through his skin, _without an incision, without prior preparation, with only the tensing of his muscles to go off as to timing, all in less than_ three seconds _-!)_

" _Here there be monsters."_ He remembers telling young Uchiha Itachi, back when he was still capable of bluster and life and Shisui-bolstered sense of self-importance. He never thought that _healing_ of all things could inspire such profound feelings of terror in him, but…

But.

There is talent, there is genius, and then there are _abominations_.

Sai is the first. Shisui was the second. Sakura is shaping up to be the third.

 _(he should've noticed sooner.)_

"We accept." He echoes hoarsely, more of a formality than anything else at this point, and not five seconds after he gives his assent, there is a knock on the door and two men walk in, both towering over the children in the room and the sitting Hokage.

"Hokage-sama," the older of the two greets, long, straw-blond hair pulled back into a severe tail, though his eyes soften incrementally when they fall on the three of them, "Tenzo came by T&I with some rather vague orders to report."

The man beside him, tall and broad and scarred in ways even shinobi rarely manage to walk away from, says nothing, his eyes flickering from Shin, to Sai, to Sakura, to the Sandaime, and Shin wonders what the man _sees_.

"Indeed, Inoichi. I sent Tenzo-kun to gather you and the other Clan Heads for a Council meeting. Conclusive evidence for Danzo's treachery has finally been brought to light, and I plan on launching a Village-wide investigation, for which I will need your fellow Heads." Sarutobi explains, but Shin's eyes are trained on the scarred man.

That's why he doesn't miss the minute widening of his eyes at the news, nor the moment a new expression appears on his face as he looks at Shin and his siblings, wariness and contemplation taking the place of the earlier suspicion.

"And me, Hokage-sama?" the man rumbles, and Shin has no doubt there are shinobi with _nightmares_ narrated by that voice.

"You and Inoichi are here for the same reason, Ibiki-kun." The Hokage attempts a smile, but it falls short. "You see, the evidence was brought to me by three of Danzo's agents."

Shin jolts, and the temperature in the room drops by ten degrees as the men realise what the Sandaime is insinuating.

"They are not a threat." Sarutobi assures, no doubt aware of the thought process his vague wording had inspired, and Shin is torn between the urge to bristle or laugh, because he is certain that, God of Shinobi or no, the three of them could _bring the man to his knees_ if they so wished. "But I will need you both to run a psychological evaluation on them."

Sakura shows the first emotion other than distaste – she pales.

"Field mission psych eval, or the ones for POWs?" 'Ibiki' asks, unperturbed by the idea of interrogating children, even as the blond beside him looks uneasy.

"Field, please. Inoichi can then sweep them for any traces of Danzo's…more unsavoury machinations, if you find anything suspicious, Ibiki-kun." The Sandaime requests, and Shin sees Sakura relax a little, colour returning to her cheeks.

 _She knows the blond._ He realises with a jolt, because that's _relief_ in Sakura's eyes when she looks at the Clan Head, an expression that has little right to be there. _Or knows_ of him _at the very least._

"And after?" Sakura demands, turning to the Hokage with a blank mask in place, the earlier relief nowhere to be found.

"After," Sarutobi repeats, and Shin can see that Sakura's unruffled countenance rubs him the wrong way, "should everything go well, you and your brother will be given a genin apartment. It won't be particularly glamorous, I'm afraid, but you will have basic amenities covered until you can start running missions. Shin-kun will be taken straight from the evaluation to the hospital, where you'll be able to visit."

"And Sai's Academy admission?" Sakura pushes, and _there's_ the spark of irritation in the Sandaime's eyes Shin was looking for.

"I will send someone with the paperwork as soon as we can ensure that Danzo will not be a threat." He assures her, somehow managing to keep his tone patient and grandfatherly, and Sakura subsides with a nod, then turns to the two men.

"Lead the way, Yamanaka-san, Morino-san." She says amiably, and when all three men startle, Shin feels like laughing. Then, as they obediently file out of the Office, Sakura turns back to the Hokage's desk, and the expression on her face morphs.

A sly, smug smirk appears, her eyes sharp and dancing with vindictive satisfaction, looking for all purposes like the cat that'd caught the canary.

 _I knew their names,_ the look seems to mock, _wouldn't you like to know how?_

Then the smirk disappears, replaced by the usual blankness, and she nods respectively at the Sandaime and leaves the room after the jounin.

 _Perhaps,_ Shin muses, _it's time to reconsider who the real chess-master here is._

* * *

Inoichi stares at the child sitting across the table from him and quietly despairs.

He is working with next to nothing; barely a _name_ , no file, no prior exposure, no rulebook, and the bombshell that Tenzo had dropped on them – that Councilman Danzo had his own ANBU force and was on his way to getting arrested thanks to intel provided by three _children_ – bouncing around his head.

The girl – Sakura – is likely around Ino's age, physically. Her feet don't touch the ground from where she sits on the chair, but she doesn't swing them like his daughter would have. In fact, everything about the girl is still, _unnaturally_ so, in a way that makes Inoichi think of a coiled snake, waiting to strike, even though nothing in her posture conveys threat.

Inoichi sighs and delves into his briefcase, pulling out a folder with the inkblot tests, and _that_ draws the first real reaction from the girl.

He earns a derisive snort.

"The inkblot test, Yamanaka-san?" She asks, mirth dancing in her eyes. "Truly?"

Inoichi notes, not for the first time, that the girl's speech pattern is not like one of children, not even traumatised ones.

"You're familiar?" he replies to her question with one of his own, quirking an eyebrow.

"Not personally." The girl says, the humour subsiding as she realises he wasn't joking. "ROOT agents were more likely to be on the receiving end of an interrogation than therapy, and there were much quicker fixes for that." She makes a crunching notion and sticks her tongue in her cheek for a split-second, and Inoichi has no doubt just what she is insinuating, but the thought makes bile rise up his throat.

 _Cyanide._

"Well, this _is_ a psych evaluation, Sakura-chan, not a field interrogation." He clarifies, just to shift his mind away from that particular gutter, and the look on the girl's face turns wry.

"Are you sure your subordinate feels the same?" she asks him dryly, and Inoichi twitches despite himself.

That isn't…an _invalid_ question, all things considered, though he wouldn't have expected it from someone who'd seen Ibiki for all of three minutes.

"I assure you that Ibiki is entirely professional." Inoichi smiles, aiming for reassuring, but the girl looks sceptical.

"That's what I'm worried about." She sighs, then levels that flat, dead gaze on him and quirks her lip. "Okay, Inoichi-san, I'll be frank. Instead of wasting each other's time with the inkblot test, I'd really rather prefer you just asked any questions you may have straight out, so we can finish this and go on our merry way."

Inoichi carefully doesn't do a double-take at the frank wording, narrowing his eyes instead.

"And what guarantee do I have that you'll answer honestly?" he checks, because the offer is tempting, but it's too… _simple_ for his tastes.

The girl smiles, sharp and sardonic, as if she expected the question.

"And what guarantee do you have that Danzo hasn't shown us the inkblot test and told us _exactly_ what to answer to avert suspicion?" she shoots back, and Inoichi masks a wince.

 _None._

"Okay. Let's try this." He sighs at last and collects the papers he'd taken out, shoving them back in his briefcase and leaving only a notepad. "How did you join ROOT?"

"I was kidnapped."

Inoichi jerks, looking up from his notepad with wide eyes, but Sakura meets his gaze and looks utterly nonplussed despite the admission.

"Right." He manages, trying to aim for professional and unaffected and missing by a mile _._ "And how old were you?"

"I…" she hesitates, frowning, and Inoichi realises that she can't _remember_. "It was a few weeks after my sixth birthday." She says at last, and Inoichi's heart _twists_.

"And how old are you now?"

The frown deepens.

"What day is it?" she asks distractedly, and when Inoichi answers – February 20th – it smooths out. "I'll be ten in a month."

 _Ten._

( _she's Ino's age-!)_

"So you were in ROOT for around three and a half years?"

"Looks like it."

"And when did you decide to start collecting evidence for the Hokage to take down Councilman Shimura?"

"A month after joining."

Inoichi pauses, looks up, not bothering to hide how startled he is because _that can't be right_.

"A month?" he checks, and the girl smiles.

"Yes. I was never loyal to Danzo." She admits, not a hint of hesitation in her demeanour.

"Forgive me for asking, but… _how?_ "

Sakura shrugs.

"My brothers got to me before he could. They gave me something else to fight for. Something better."

 _Right. Next question or professionalism be damned, he's vaulting over the table and hugging the kid._

"Who came up with the plan to take Danzo down?"

"It…was probably a joint effort. Though, when I was inducted, the idea for the revolution was already brewing in my brothers' heads, they just didn't have the push they needed yet." The girl is surprisingly loose-lipped now, and Inoichi still can't find a hint of lie anywhere about her.

"And was it always three of you?"

 _Ah. A change._

Sakura's expression pinches with pain.

"We…we were four, once." She admits quietly, a shadow falling over her face.

"What happened?"

"He died."

 _Be professional, be professional, beprofessional!_

"I'm sorry." He manages eventually, genuine sorrow leaking into his voice, and Sakura inclines her head, though she doesn't meet his eyes.

"What are your plans for the future?" he asks next, and he notes how the girl's posture relaxes ever so slightly at the change in subject.

"My otouto is going to be starting the Academy if everything works out, so I'll need to be there for him, and our aniki will be hospital-bound for the near-future, so my plans are all Konoha-centred, for now." She admits, and Inoichi frowns.

"And _your_ plans?" he presses, and the amused lip-quirk he gets lets him know that Sakura had evaded his question intentionally.

"I will most likely be poached for ANBU, Inoichi-san. Not much point in planning too far."

Inoichi barely resists the urge to pass a hand over his eyes and despair.

"You could decline. Konoha is _good_ , Sakura-chan. You should have the chance to see it."

The girl lets out a humourless chortle.

"The _people_ are good, Inoichi-san. The Village is a military dictatorship ran on politics and propaganda. I have no future there."

Inoichi…puts that aside, for the time being. There's a lot to unpack there.

"Could you not ask to start the Academy alongside your otouto?" he asks, and another startled laugh escapes the pinkette, seemingly shocking her as much as it does him.

"The Academy?" she parrots, humour still evident in her voice. "Are you a father, Inoichi-san?"

He almost does a double-take at the non-sequitur, but nods. "Yes. I am."

"And could you imagine _me_ , the embittered, traumatised, PTSD-ridden child-soldier interacting with your child?" she inquires, and Inoichi can't stifle his wince at her wording.

He makes a note of _'low self-esteem; acknowledgement of trauma',_ then considers what the girl said.

He thinks of Ino, his wonderful, fierce Ino with a heart of gold, thinks of her righteous anger when she nattered on and on to him about how some bullies had cornered the shy Hyuuga heiress and how that just _wasn't right._ He thinks of his daughter and the tentative friendship she'd forged with Hiashi's oldest, thinks of the way little Hinata-chan looks at Ino as if she'd hung the stars, then he looks at the girl in front of him and sighs.

It's like comparing night and day, or the sun and the moon. Sakura is the deceptive calm of the sea that lulls even the most experienced sailors into a false sense of security and pulls them to the depths in their moments of inattention, while Ino is… not. She is soft and kind and loving and innocent. The two couldn't be more disparate if they tried, and yet…

"My daughter treats people like projects, Sakura-chan. Nothing and no- _one_ is too broken, too jagged for her to fix."

Sakura quirks a wry smile, but it seems self-directed.

"Are you calling me broken, Inoichi-san?"

Inoichi flushes at his mistake, but the girl seems only amused, perhaps even a little touched.

"I'm saying that a little, ah, _TLC_ never hurt anyone, Sakura-chan."

The girl erupts into giggles, as if he's just told the most entertaining joke of the month.

"I'd have paid you fifty million to say that in ROOT, Inoichi-san." She manages to get out once her laughter subsides, and the rosy flush to her cheeks makes her look the most alive since Inoichi laid eyes on her. "TLC. _Hah_."

Inoichi smiles back, small and hesitant yet warm, and steers the conversation back on track.

"And what of your parents, Sakura-chan?" he asks, and the girl's mirth evaporates faster than it takes him to blink. "They were civilian, were they not? Are you planning on going back to them?"

Immediately, it's as if shutters were pulled down over Sakura's eyes, covering all emotion held within, and her face smooths back into that eerie blankness.

"My first mission in ROOT," she says quietly, and Inoichi allows the change in subject more out of personal curiosity than a professional one, "was to kill a man with my bare hands. What I wasn't told until years later was that my handler had spread my hair and my blood on the scene after I was done. So picture it, Inoichi-san: a lowly civilian noble, with a rumoured taste for minors; a civilian girl's blood and hair on the scene. The girl disappears, the man is dead. What conclusion would you have reached?"

Inoichi can't speak past the bile rising up his throat, but it seems Sakura doesn't actually expect him to answer.

"My parents have probably already mourned me, grieved for me, and moved on. And rightfully so; I am not the child that they lost." She sighs, sounding a tinge annoyed, and Inoichi wonders whether she feels like she's said too much. "So _no_ , Inoichi-san. I am not planning on going back to my parents. I am not so mindlessly cruel."

Inoichi swallows, once, twice, then gathers his things and stands up. "This concludes our evaluation. Thank you for your cooperation."

He leads her out of the interrogation room, surprised to see Kakashi outside, waiting with Sakura's younger brother, though a blank dog mask covers the boy's face. Inoichi waits until Ibiki comes out of his interrogation room with the grey-haired one, a wolf mask over his face, and leaves Sakura, the only one unmasked, in the jounins' capable hands.

Then, he runs to the bathroom, drops his briefcase, and throws up.

* * *

Ibiki watches Hatake watch the pink-haired brat and wonders at the wariness he finds in the Copy-nin's face. Considering Inoichi's pale, 'I'm-about-to-bring-up-my-lunch' expression when he finished his 'evaluation', he considers _not_ chocking it up to Hatake's undiagnosed paranoia just this once and actually _looks._

She's small. Unhealthily pale. Definitely underweight. But those are undeniably muscles lining her thighs and shoulders, and she carries herself in a way that he'd expect jounin camping on the front-lines would, not a _child_ within Academy-age.

When she looks at him, he mentally adds that he's seen more life in the eyes of _corpses_.

 _Test time._

"You've had shit luck, kids." He offers gruffly, and Hatake almost gives away the name of the game when he jerks to look at him incredulously, but luckily, that ridiculous mask of his saves him. "You didn't hear it from me, but Shimura is being held in a cell two floors down if you want to get your kicks in. His chakra's been sealed, so it's not like he can call for help."

The dark-haired kid, Sai, startles, and it's obvious despite the mask hiding his face.

He's the one Ibiki had hesitantly pegged as having some neurodevelopmental disorder because there's shinobi-crazy, there's ROOT-conditioning-crazy, and _then_ there's Orochimaru's brand of people-are-fascinating-and-I-want-to-take-them-apart-and-see-how-they-fit-back-together-because-I-don't- _understand_ crazy, and the kid seems to have a dizzying mix of all three. He'd flipped between reticent and oversharing so fast Ibiki had almost gotten whiplash, but the one topic he'd been consistently tight-lipped on, to the point that Ibiki had half-considered seeing whether threatening to rip off his nails would get a reaction, had been his siblings.

The same siblings now grab his hands, seemingly both reaching the same conclusion, and the grey-haired one narrows his eyes at Ibiki behind his own mask but says nothing.

That one was a slippery bastard in his interrogation. Older than Uchiha-lookalike – though by how much, Ibiki has no clue since he can just about tell the difference between a five-month-old and a five- _year_ -old, and anywhere above that he just approximates by hormones and acne – and _canny_ in such a way that if the remaining members of the first ANBU squad formed under the Nidaime were to welcome him to their poker nights, they would find a worthwhile opponent.

The only things he'd freely answered were related to Danzo's treachery and the sheer insanity of the old coot's perception of their world. All the other questions he'd managed to turn back on Ibiki or diverted with a beguiling smile, and the jounin had had to grudgingly accept that he wouldn't be getting anything incriminating on the kid.

"What arm did you put his chakra-restricting seal on?" the pink-haired brat asks, a propos nothing, and Ibiki blinks, only belatedly realising what she's referring to.

 _Right. The test._

"His left." He bluffs, though his voice betrays nothing, because he is _Morino Ibiki_ , a man hardened _jounin_ flinch away from, and if he wants to scare some bratlings, he _will_.

The earlier excitement in the Uchiha-clone's posture disappears, and the oldest brat radiates smugness, while the girl levels that dead-eyed gaze on him and frowns.

"We are not so hasty to throw away our second chance at life, Ibiki-san. You'll have to try harder."

And with that, she subsides once again, quiet and pensive, and the boys at her side follow suit. Ibiki turns to Hatake with a frown, but the Copy-nin's eyes are closed, and he looks like he could almost be napping. He must feel Ibiki's glare on him, though, because he answers the unspoken question.

"Shimura was missing his left arm when we apprehended him." He explains simply, and Ibiki's eyebrows soar up at the notion of the crusty Elder getting involved in anything where someone could stand to hurt him.

He glances back at the pink menace and feels an ember of intrigue spark to life.

"What gave me away?" he asks, not specifying what that he means _how did you know I was talking straight outta my ass_ but the kid must get the inkling anyway because she answers.

"Your reputation precedes you, Morino-san. It wasn't too far-fetched to assume you'd try to trick us."

"That way of thinking is gonna end in you jumping at your own shadow in a few years." He warns bluntly, and the kid barely blinks.

"Careful, Morino-san, or your jesting might get misconstrued as concern."

Ibiki can't stop the aborted laugh the retort startles out of him.

"Alright, Hatake, take boy-wonder over here to the hospital and I'll show dead-eyes and dog-boy to their new lodgings." He orders once he reins his laughter in, and though the girl scowls at him, there's a hint of something sly and satisfied in her eyes when he meets them.

"And what cover story shall I feed the hospital?" Hatake asks flatly, gesturing at the grey-haired brat in a clear _don't lump me with this_ but Ibiki just smirks and shrugs.

"Fuck if I know. Say it's your long-lost estranged cousin or something. Not like anyone's going to question it." He thinks he hears a snort to his left, but when he looks at the girl, her face is perfectly blank and there's not a hint of amusement in her demeanour. He turns back to Hatake. "That hair colour isn't exactly common, you know."

 _Neither is being such a goddamn obstinate bastard._

Subtly, so the kids don't catch it, Hatake flips him the bird. Then, before Ibiki has a chance to retaliate, he wraps his hand around his newly-declared cousin's wrist and _blurs_.

"Well. Follow me, bratlings." He throws at the kids, then heads for the stairs out of the bunker.

He pretends not to notice as the ANBU team that had been watching the entire exchange melts out of the shadows and follows.

* * *

Eight hours after two children broke into his office, seven hours after he sent the same children to get interrogated by Ibiki of all people, and six hours after he called every Clan Head and the Council of Elders into his office, Hiruzen can say with certainty that Danzo is as good as dead.

Some of the Clan Heads, particularly those who'd lost children to ROOT, had been campaigning for an execution without trial. Luckily, Hiashi, Murakumo and Chouza had been managed to moderate that bloodlust to execution following a private trial, with a jury of the Council and Clan Heads and an audience of only the in-Village jounin, which would speed the process up exponentially.

Still, despite all signs pointing to very swift and definitive justice befalling Danzo, Tsume had _snarled_ when Hiruzen requested that the civilians not be made aware of Danzo's depravity. Even Shikaku, usually so even-tempered, had questioned the wisdom of his decision.

"The civilians will be reassured to see that we are not infallible." He'd offered, calmly and without raising his voice, yet his words cut right through Tsume's incoherent snarls and the angry buzzing coming from Shibi's direction. "We failed before, with Orochimaru, and later Itachi – it would inspire confidence to see that we can bring justice to those who abuse the system _without_ driving them to madness or exile."

"I value your judgement, Shikaku-kun, but in this instance, I think you overestimate human nature. If the civilians learn of Danzo's transgressions, they will lose faith in the shinobi system. They cannot be allowed to learn of the full truth. A few days after the trial, they will be informed that Danzo passed away due to an unseen illness."

"Will you enforce another gag-order then?" Tsume demands, and her tone is far too sharp to appear even vaguely respectful. "Like on poor Uzumaki-kun?"

The temperature in the room drops, but Shibi lays a hand on Tsume's shoulder and surprises everyone by speaking.

"Why hold a trial at all if Shimura-san's fate is already decided?" he asks quietly, evenly, the buzzing under his skin almost unnoticeable now.

"Politics and propaganda." Inoichi mumbles from the corner of the table, his gaze far-away and his expression haunted. Hiruzen catches Shikaku throw his friend a concerned glance, but he ignores it in favour of calling the meeting to a close.

"It's been decided. The trial will be held in two days and all will be explained then. Thank you for coming, and for listening. I know it was not easy. And I offer my sincerest condolences for your losses." The gathered shinobi take the dismissal for what it is, and quickly file out of his office.

A few minutes later, Hiruzen is left on his own, with only his guilt and his pipe for company.

It was inevitable that Danzo would one day be exposed, but Hiruzen never thought it would ever be during his term as Hokage. Still, when the opportunity presented itself so neatly and effortlessly on his part, he'd have been a fool to pass it up, no matter his sympathy to his childhood teammate.

 _Childhood._

His mind drifts back to the children who had stood before him not ten hours ago; he absently corrects himself, because they were not children. They were soldiers, war-born and death-forged; tools custom-made to serve their master; mice who should've cowered before the big cat.

Yet, it seems even mice will bite when cornered.

Hiruzen thinks of emerald eyes, of the smugness, the accusations, the anger held within, and sighs.

If you live long enough, you begin to see the same eyes in different people, and he'd seen eyes like _hers_ before.

He'd seen them in Tobirama-sensei. In Orochimaru. In Minato. In Kakashi-kun.

He'd seen them in people with nothing left to lose, but who could and _would_ bring empires to the ground once they finally lost it, if not carefully monitored.

Tobirama-sensei had avoided such fate due to his sheer _sentiment_. It was both, a blessing and a curse that he'd always been so set on protecting those assigned to him. A curse because, if he hadn't worried about the safety of Hiruzen's team, he could've fought the Kinkaku Force that had attacked them with his full repertoire of truly devastating jutsu and wiped them from the surface of the earth and fulfilled his term as Hokage. A blessing, however, because if he'd done so and succeeded, he'd have singlehandedly thrown Konoha into a war with Kumo. Sheer, foolish sentiment, no doubt learnt from his late aniki, had prevented Tobirama-sensei from fulfilling the promise held in the emptiness of his eyes and becoming a catalyst to war.

Orochimaru, as Hiruzen had learnt today, had been betrayed. Still, his disappointed ambition had led him into Danzo's waiting arms, and when he broke, he sent three full ANBU squads to the Shinigami, and every subsequent hunter-nin team Hiruzen had thought to send after his old student since. So Orochimaru became the monster parents told their children horror stories about, and the last time Hiruzen had seen him, the emptiness that had once been genius and charisma had been overcome with madness.

Minato's genius and untethered ambition had been masterfully tamed by tales of the Will of Fire and the Destiny of Hokage, both offered by Jiraiya's careful tutelage. Hiruzen had never been prouder of his old student than he was when he saw Minato grow from the precocious fourteen-year-old genius jounin intent on testing limits of jutsu and people alike to a man who, in his mid-twenties, did not hesitate to sacrifice his and his wife's lives and the happiness of his new-born son for the security of the Village. Jiraiya had ensured that Minato died a hero, not a wild dog that had to be put down or chased away like Orochimaru.

And Kakashi…Hiruzen wonders whether ANBU saved or broke Kakashi, but it seems like the boy is still set on self-destructing, and if he stays in ANBU, then there's a chance they'll be able to minimise the collateral damage when he finally goes down. After all, with a draft of Tenzo's reassignment papers and Kotetsu's resignation from Team Ro on his desk, all that will really go down with Kakashi will be Yugao and whatever interim member they happen to have at the time.

Hiruzen thinks back to the pink-haired menace who had so blatantly challenged him, then casts his gaze to the ANBU forms on his desk. Perhaps… she'd offered herself in service to the Village, after all, and it didn't escape his notice that Danzo's files about the Uchiha Massacre are conspicuously missing. If the girl breaks, she could tear down any respectability and legacy Hiruzen had managed to build as effortlessly as she's just destroyed Danzo's, and that cannot be allowed.

He sits behind his desk, pulls a third type of ANBU form towards him, and begins filling it out.

If he lets Kakashi stay in ANBU, puts the girl on his team and uses the boy as the ticking time-bomb that he is, he could get rid of two pesky birds with one stone.

Within minutes, the form declaring Sakura's immediate installation as a third member of Team Ro is complete, and the girl's fate is sealed.

Hiruzen stands, sighs, extinguishes his pipe, and heads on home, and if he were younger, there would've been a bounce in his step.

Unlike Danzo, he will not be brought down by a _child._

* * *

 ** _*banging pots and pans together*_ i! hate! sarutobi!**

 **ehem.**

 **please tell me what you thought!**


	11. Chapter 11

**semi-regular updating schedule? what's this?**

 **i love the tune of 'fuck hiruzen' yall have been singing to since the previous chapter, and let me tell you, it warms my soul. i hate OG hiruzen for soooooooooo many reasons, so this is very much unearthing the literal saltmine of feelings i have towards the character.**

 **also, to those who have been asking, shisui will make a reappearance in the next chapter!**

 **as for ages:**

 **sakura: 10, sai: 11 going on 12, shin: 15, shisui: 17**

* * *

The apartment Ibiki leads them to is perfectly utilitarian.

It's an almost-exact replica of Naruto's old apartment, only difference being a slightly larger common area and an extra door, which Sakura guesses leads to the second bedroom. She spies a stove and a dilapidated fridge, and reckons the whole building is in dire need of TLC.

Overall, it's clear that the Sandaime isn't going to spend a single yen more than he absolutely has to in order to house them.

Luckily, Shin's paranoia ran far deeper than the Hokage's pettiness.

"Home sweet home." Ibiki snorts, breaking the silence that had fallen over the three of them as he drops the keys on Sakura's outstretched hand. "Your rent and utilities will be covered by the Village until you graduate the Academy or start earning enough to be self-sufficient. If you have any questions, ask now, otherwise I am _leaving._ "

Sakura narrows her eyes, her hand tightening around the keys. "No tricks?" she asks finally, and is rewarded by Ibiki's lip twitching up slightly.

"No tricks. You passed. This is the reward." He confirms, and Sakura nods, satisfied, then inclines her head in a shallow bow.

"Thank you for your time, Morino-san."

Ibiki snorts again, then, with a rustle of leaves, he is gone.

Almost in a daze, Sakura closes the front door and drops the keys on the small hall table in the corridor, before following Sai deeper into the apartment. She takes a tour of the bedrooms – a basic futon-desk-closet set-up – and the bathroom, which is comparably dinghy to the kitchen, but at least cockroach-free, unlike Naruto's old apartment, and _thinks_.

She knows, realistically, that this is enough for them. Sai, after taking an even shorter tour of the apartment than she did, had gravitated to the living room windows like a moth to a flame and seemed enraptured by the never-ending stream of people milling about below. She _knew_ that as long as nobody told him to go back to Danzo's windowless hell of a HQ, he'd be content.

But the goal of their entire mad operation to bring down one of the most untouchable men in Konohagakure's history hadn't been simple contentment. 'Enough' simply isn't good enough this time, and Sakura makes up her mind, stepping closer to Sai and laying a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Sai-chan," she murmurs, not wanting to startle the raven even though she's sure he already sensed her approach, "ever wondered whether your talent for art extended to interior design as well?"

Sai turns to her, eyes wide, and his chakra thrums with excitement. Sakura smiles, amused, and so unbearably, undeniably fond.

"Wanna find out?"

* * *

It takes Sai less than two hours to have the blueprints, colour-scheme, and furniture for their flat mapped out. Sakura gives him free rein over deciding the colours and designs for everything, though she insists on being the one to choose the colours and furniture of her bedroom. After living with her parents, then on the frontlines of an international war, then in ROOT, the potential of finally being able to do something as silly and seemingly-inconsequential as decorating her own bedroom is a little childish dream-come-true.

Then, she takes a third of the stash of their hard-earned ROOT money and takes Sai _shopping_.

They spend hours wondering from a carpenters to an interior-design store, choosing paints and desks and futons and little cosy knick-knacks, and Sakura almost cries when she catches a mesmerized-looking Sai running his fingers over a crushed-velvet sofa cushion, eyes wide with wonder.

(she makes sure four of the cushions and a soft-wool sofa throw end up in their basket, and pretends not to notice how Sai brightens when he spots them)

Aware that on the outside they look like Academy-age kids, Sakura carefully requests that the furniture that ten-year-olds wouldn't normally be spotted carrying is delivered to their flat instead. Keeping up an appearance of normalcy is half the battle, after all.

Everything else – paint cans, paintbrushes, blankets, cushions, various utensils, cleaning products, towels, and, really, anything they can realistically carry – they lug back to their apartment, legs aching after the thirtieth-something trip to their third-floor flat.

Sakura spends the rest of the day covering every inch of the floors and anything valuable in newspaper, while Sai does what he's best at and _paints._

The sun had well and truly set by the time Sai finishes painting the bathroom, and the stench of paint is so overwhelming in their entire apartment that Sakura simply grabs his hand and tugs him out the door and up the fire-escape leading to the roof, two of their newly-purchased blankets in hand and a cushion under each arm. She may be a veteran and she may have survived four years in Danzo's basement of a base, but like hell is she going to sleep in that apartment if she doesn't absolutely have to.

"That was…fun." Sai tells her once they cocoon themselves in their respective blankets, the starry night sky twinkling above them, the noise of the street reduced to almost nothing with the late hour and how high they are above it all.

Sakura smiles and her heart swells, and she squeezes her eyes shut, holding back the stubborn, relieved tears that threaten to escape.

"I'm glad." She replies and hopes that her voice isn't as choked up as it sounds to her.

"Thank you, aneue."

"Always, otouto."

And with the sky stretching out like an endless, sparkling canvas above them, Sakura falls asleep, hand-in-hand with a boy for whom she'd turn the entire world on its head and set it aflame without a hint of hesitation.

* * *

They spend the next two days making their house a _home._

Their apartment is almost unrecognisable from what it was when Ibiki left them, and Sakura is _gleeful_ when she thinks of what the Sandaime's reaction would be if he saw it now. Sai, too, although he is more subtle in his joy, noticeably relaxes every time he steps into their living room and his posture firms with something a lot like pride.

Sai's bedroom is the clear blue of a cloudless sky, while Sakura chose the soothing green of shadowed mossy forests, though it's their living room that's the most impressive of all. Red blends into orange that blends into warm yellow, a perfect recreation of the afternoon sky seconds before the last rays of sunshine disappear over the horizon.

After three days, Sakura assigns the term 'home' to a place and _means it_ for the first time since even before Pein's invasion.

On the fourth day, Sai's Academy registration papers come, delivered by a haggard chunin who insists on waiting while Sai fills them in, and won't stop shooting Sakura what he clearly thinks are inconspicuous glances as she very unsubtly dips her senbon in her newest batch of batrachotoxin, occasionally piping in when Sai gets stuck.

On the fifth day, Sakura drags Sai shopping for anything and everything they missed in their apartment-spree. New clothes, school supplies, better-grade weapons, books; both, for leisure, and for life-skills, though she carefully keeps him away from the ones on how to socialise; and anything Sai looks at with even the barest hint of longing in his eyes, Sakura makes sure ends up in their bags.

On the sixth day, Sakura visits Shin in the hospital, and winces at the shivering, sweat-soaked mess of a boy she finds in the hospital bed.

"I'm fine." Is what he greets her with, pupils blown wide and teeth clenched as he rides out the wave of nausea. "It's necessary."

"I know." Sakura replies, grabbing the discarded, half-empty glass from his bedside and topping it up with more cold water. "But just because it's necessary doesn't mean it's fine. Withdrawal isn't _pleasant_ , aniki, you don't have to pretend."

"Don't I?" Shin bites out, losing the fight with nausea and turning to the side to vomit into the basin clipped onto his bed for that precise reason. "You always do."

And Sakura…doesn't know how to respond to that. She isn't sure she wants to.

So she doesn't.

"I'll come by once you're through the worst of it." She informs him curtly, blowing out a frustrated sigh. "I just wanted to let you know that Sai is starting the Academy tomorrow. We did it."

And so saying, she takes her leave.

On the seventh day since moving in to their new apartment, Sakura walks Sai to the Academy gates, taking a moment to admire the boy she gets to call a brother in this life.

The horrendous, belly-bearing crop-top of his teenage years is nowhere in sight, though it seems Sai will forever be a fashionista, no matter the timeline. Excess skin is covered by a tight, reinforced black undershirt, over which Sai has thrown a light grey, cropped short-sleeve hoodie. Coupled with his loose, tied-at-the-ankles charcoal hakama pants, he looks as if he couldn't decide between being battle-ready or nap-ready, yet it somehow _works._

Unable to fight back the wave of fondness that washes over her, Sakura reaches out and ruffles Sai's hair, flashing him a reassuring smile.

"Have fun, Sai-chan. I'll be by later to pick you up and we can go to Yakiniku to celebrate."

Sai considers her for a second, then smiles. His eyes crinkle into adorable half-crescents and his cheek dimples, and he reaches for the hand Sakura still has in his hair and wraps his fingers around her wrist, squeezing lightly.

"I will wait for you." He murmurs, no lie nor unnecessary sentiment, just fact, yet Sakura feels warmed to the core by the devotion she reads in his eyes.

With a final squeeze to her wrist, Sai turns and disappears amongst the throng of students heading into the once-familiar building.

(Sakura laughs herself to tears at his recounting of his day later on, once they're sitting at Yakiniku Q, barbeque long-forgotten in favour of Sai's deadpan disbelief. "They don't know how to _tree-walk_ , aneue." He tells her in that bland, inflectionless tone, his expression perfectly placid even as his chakra is going haywire in his confusion. "They're two years from graduation and they haven't even started learning how to create substantial _bunshin._ ". She knows she may grow to regret what she tells him next, but a part of her psyche is twenty-seven, and this is too good an opportunity to pass up. "Well, to keep things interesting, you could always…")

On the eighth day, Sakura's late-morning stretches are interrupted by two shadowy figures in painted masks emerging from the treeline.

On the twenty-second day, Sakura returns to the Village and gets a tattoo.

On the hundred and twenty-seventh day, agent Mongoose joins Team Ro.

* * *

Their new teammate is quiet.

That's Kakashi's main impression. After a three-month-long string of missions where their resident rookie was put through the ringer and Team Ro ticked off more assassinations than most jounin see in their careers, he can add that she's _unusually_ quiet.

If not for the fact that Kakashi heard her bargain with a _kage_ and talk for over an hour, he would've attributed it to ROOT conditioning, but as it is, he knows better.

She's good, too. She takes to the sneaky, dirty, soul-staining missions that are required of them like a fish to water, listens without questioning and provides reports on time, written neatly and concisely.

Unlike Weasel, she offers camaraderie freely – a touch to the shoulder here, an offer of a spare granola bar there – she doesn't pretend to know the dynamics, doesn't force herself into the team, but she _fits_ , in a way that a barely ten-year-old _shouldn't_ among veteran assassins.

But she's still _quiet_.

For all that ANBU cultivates an image of being impersonal, once you're on the inside, it's anything but. The squad becomes a second family with how much time they are required to spend together, the masks are only worn on missions and any chance at time off is grabbed with eager hands. Hierarchy and obedience are only really adhered to on missions outside the Village, and Yugao herself is living proof that even hero-worship will wane after sufficient exposure.

Kakashi also knows that his team is somewhat infamous amongst the shadow-ranks. He knows what reputation they have, he knows he's essentially had it built around him, a then-seventeen-year-old recruit, who after two years of service got the title of Captain. He remembers the stares, the jeers, the bitterness that had been directed at him and he'd rolled with it. He'd had the best and brightest under his command – had nabbed the best and _only_ kenjutsu mistress at the time, had campaigned for taking an ex-ROOT agent who'd tried to kill him twice into the heart of his team, had gotten the Uchiha heir despite his rocky history with the Clan and the boy had been even younger than Kakashi was when he started.

Then he'd had it come crashing down around him. He'd been one of the first called to the clean-up after the Massacre, had lost one squad member to the life of missing-nin, another – Tenzo – a few months later, to a classified, long-term mission outside the Village. He'd had to pick up the pieces, kept Ko and Yugao on, and tried recruit after recruit to fill the missing spot but none lasted past the first mission outside the Village; quit as soon as they realised that gossip and hearsay was nothing in comparison to the actual missions assigned to Team Ro.

In a fit of frustrated pique, he'd requested for Genma to be transferred back into the shadow-ranks, confident that at least he would last, because despite his easy disposition and unfailing good humour, the man had more blood in his ledger than even Kakashi. They worked well for a period of time, and then Ko had left and he had to run through the whole recruiting process _again_ –

-and then he got Sakura.

Three months since she was brought in, and the girl is still here, undeniably a part of his team, even though she hardly ever speaks.

Kakashi sighs, slumps against the trunk of the tree he's reclining on during one of their whole-squad training sessions in one of HQ's indoor training grounds, and looks down at the source of his latest headache.

"What do you think?" he asks when he feels Genma settle on the branch beside him, and they both spend a minute silently watching Yugao run their new recruit through kenjutsu drills.

"She's adjusting well." Genma says at last, and there's a hint of something sardonic in his voice, despite the mild words.

Kakashi snorts, because they both know that new recruits don't _adjust_ to Team Ro, they survive it and then never return.

"Think it will last?" he presses, knows Genma understands what he's really asking – an approximation for when he reckons the other shoe will drop – and the brunet hums, tilts his head in that assessing, careful way of his, and shrugs.

"She keeps up physically just fine." He points out, "And somehow, her default response to your ridiculousness seems to be amusement, so she might make it."

Kakashi makes an affronted sound because that was _unnecessary_ , but Genma, who's known him since before he hit his growth-spurt, who's seen him cling to Minato, who shared his grief when the blond was taken from them, who is the second person, right after Gai, who Kakashi would say comes the closest to _knowing_ him, Genma just raises an eyebrow, daring him to protest.

"Even you must realise the hazing you're putting the kid through is excessive." He says, and it's not an admonishment, not really, it's far too mild for that, but Kakashi knows better. "I get not wanting another Weasel, but she's surprisingly human for a child genius."

"Not a child genius." Kakashi denies, watches as Yugao twists the kid's tanto out of her hands and kicks her legs out from underneath her. "Her family was civilian."

(is, he should say. _Is_ civilian. Haruno Mebuki and Haruno Kizashi are still alive, although they'd left Konoha and settled in Tanzaku-gai after their six-year-old daughter was kidnapped-and-presumed-killed in broad daylight, but not before leaving tiny, hand-shaped bruises around the throat of her definitely-dead presumed-rapist.)

Genma snorts, jolting Kakashi out of his spiral, and the tokujo couldn't have called bullshit clearer than if he'd shouted it from the top of the Hokage Mountain.

"There's nothing about _that_ ," he says and jerks his chin at the scene below them as Yugao repeats the drill and this time, Sakura side-steps, kicks at her wrist, jumps over the low retaliatory kick and moves low and into Yugao's guard and lightly raps her knuckles against the woman's chest-armour before stepping away, "that says anything other than _trained assassin_."

Kakashi sighs, thinks back to that faithful afternoon in the Sandaime's office and wonders why he agreed to take on a _revolutionary_ of all things, then gives in. Genma's not the type to let a line of questioning go so easily, after all, and for all that Kakashi keeps his secrets close to his chest, this one might be better off shared.

"You didn't hear this from me," he starts, and Genma's chakra _sings_ with victory, "but when Sarutobi shook ROOT, she was what fell out."

(though, really, who shook whom?)

Genma frowns for a second, then his face goes slack with shock.

" _Her_?!" he demands, looks to Kakashi as if asking him to take it back. "The old war hawk was brought down by a kid?!" and of course the tokujo catches on, Kakashi had been counting on it, but he's still distantly surprised at just how quickly the man pieces it together.

"Mm." Kakashi hums and absently notes their female teammates have moved on to controlled sparring.

"So then- the long-term missions assigned to the Yamanaka?" Genma asks, and it's a leap but it's not _wrong_.

"Price of information." Kakashi explains, and smiles wryly. "Reconditioning and socialisation instead of, ah, _decommissioning_."

Genma blinks, and Kakashi can see the cogs whirring in his mind.

"And the sudden spike in numbers in Assassination and Sabotage are, what? Those too old to be reconditioned?" when Kakashi stays silent, he sighs, takes off his bandana and rakes his hand through his hair. " _Kami_."

A senbon suddenly embeds itself in the tree trunk between them, close and fast enough that Kakashi feels the _whoosh_ of air even through his mask. As one, they look down, and Yugao is standing there, smirking, while their youngest teammate has the gall to wave.

"Are you two quite done?" Yugao asks, the respect and awe Kakashi remembers from their first days as Team Ro nowhere to be found. "We were thinking about 1v1v1v1."

The corner of Sakura's mouth twitches upwards at Kakashi's put-upon expression, but she stays characteristically silent.

 _Let's go_.

* * *

It all comes to a head two months later.

They've been tasked with assassinating one of Fire's nobles who's been rumoured to have a taste for young, not always willing lovers. Unfortunately, his favourites seem come almost exclusively from the children studying and performing at the Daimyo's court, and that can't be allowed to go on. They initially decide to wait until the lord is going to be on the move next, impersonate unaffiliated bandits and sneak the assassination past the guards in the commotion of the raid, thus making the death impossible to be traced back to Konoha.

But then, Sakura proposes another idea.

Kakashi forgets, sometimes, that for all that she keeps up with them on missions, their newest recruit is barely ten years old.

He's reluctant but eventually he agrees, and he and Yugao situate themselves on the tree closest to their target's room while Genma's by the entrance into the hotel, disguised as a beggar.

Through the window, they see Sakura walk into the noble's room, gold-crusted tray crammed with an obnoxious amount of finger-foods and plates in hand, and they don't need his chakra to be able to tell how their target's interest spikes.

"My lord." Sakura's grainy voice greets them through the coms as she sets the tray on the bedside table and sets about pouring the wine and the tea with graceful motions that visibly enrapture the noble.

Their target trips over himself in an attempt to convince Sakura to use his given name, and falls for the trap hook, line, and sinker when he says; "Why don't you eat with me? This is far too much for one man to finish, and you look like you could use a good meal."

 _Does she?_ Kakashi wonders, and it's not a thought he would've ever entertained before, but dressed in civilian clothes and free of the bulky ANBU uniform, Sakura is clearly on the _malnourished_ side of petite. _Shit_.

While Kakashi absorbs that, Sakura demurs and gently refuses, and in a crafted show of concession, gives in and perches lightly on the bed. The noble digs into the feast while Sakura slowly nibbles on a few sushi rolls and engages the man in light, pointless conversation, and yet it's still more than Kakashi's heard her say in one go in the five months he's had her.

And then, their target sways, and within a split-second, something metallic flashes from the tips of Sakura's fingers and retracts, but the noble stops moving.

There's a breath, a sigh, and then a curt, "It's done."

"Good job." Kakashi says, tuning back into the present, and stands. "Reckon you could stage it to look like an accident?"

"I could." She agrees, adds, "But I need some help lifting him. He weighs a ton."

Genma's laughter reaches them over the comms, and then the door to the room opens and the brunet steps through, while Kakashi and Yugao move towards the window.

Sakura and Genma lug the man to the bathroom while Kakashi surveys the room, as well as the mostly-unfinished dinner. Then there's a thud from the bathroom, a bark of startled laughter, and the two emerge, grinning.

Yugao raises an eyebrow.

"We gonna piss and shower with a corpse in the same room?" she asks, but it's not a complaint, not really.

Genma shrugs and Sakura raises an eyebrow, seemingly not seeing the issue, and they both move towards the bed, leaving Yugao and Kakashi to find their own corner.

"What was poisoned?" Genma asks curiously, surveying the leftover food with no small amount of interest.

"Just the fugu." Sakura says offhandedly. "Twice the lethal dose of tetrodotoxin. And my senbon were tipped in batrachotoxin."

Genma's eyes widen as he gapes, and his tone when he speaks is jealous, almost petulant. "The only golden poison frogs I ever found were far north in Kaminari no Kuni." He – if Kakashi were a lesser man, he'd say _pouts_ – complains. Sakura just shrugs, though her lip twitches upwards.

"Shimura was surprisingly tolerant of weird requests if they would make us better killers." She explains, and Kakashi wonders if he should be concerned by how blasé the observation is.

 _Probably._

"My otouto regularly snuck reinforced kurotani paper and sumi ink into the monthly budgets. And our aniki used Wind Release in conjunction with his kenjutsu, so he went through katana after katana like they were kunai, since the metal the mass-produced weapons are made of isn't designed for repeated chakra-channelling." She shrugs again, seemingly unaware of the absolute silence that has fallen in the room. "Honestly, a twice-a-year mission to north of Lightning to catch a few frogs is quite tame, in comparison."

"…Right." Genma says at last, visibly reeling, then offers her a plate with dorayaki. "Pancake?"

The girl chuckles and shakes her head, "I'd prefer the umeboshi, if you don't mind."

A few minutes later, they're all lounging in their target's stupidly expensive hotel room, food almost completely gone, taking advantage of the luxuries noble upbringing can afford and a mission completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

Then, Kakashi speaks.

"Mongoose," he calls, because he's a professional, and they are still on a mission, _technically_ , "you don't have to wait for infiltration missions to speak. Your initiation is over, you're firmly a member of Team Ro, you don't need to hold yourself back."

He sees the startled glances Yugao and Genma shoot him, whether for the casual tone or for actually addressing the issue, but Sakura, damn her, just looks amused.

"Maa," she drawls after a few seconds, the most informal they've ever heard her, and Kakashi sees Genma _twitch_ because the word is delivered in _exactly_ the same bored, indolent tone that off-duty Kakashi uses, and the fact that it's said by a voice two octaves higher is _trippy_ , "I'm not keeping quiet for my sake, taicho, but for yours."

And that- _what_?

Yugao is staring at the girl with an expression of pure shock, but Genma is visibly holding back laughter.

"Ah," Kakashi starts, slightly thrown, because that is _so_ not the response he was expecting, "then I'd prefer if you didn't. From now on, don't hold anything back." he smiles, and it's his patented fake- and-I-know-it smile, and adds, "That's an order."

"Mm." the girl hums – _hums!_ – and cocks her head, has the gall to look nonplussed and distantly amused. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" she asks, the paragon of innocence though it fools absolutely no one.

"I thought I just granted it." He says flatly. "Ordered it, even."

And then the girl shoots him a smile, swift and sure and slyer than a fox, and it's an expression that shouldn't look at home on a ten year old's face but it somehow _does_.

"You might regret it." And so saying, she lies down, turns on her side, her breathing evening out in seconds, and then she's asleep in the way that only war-hardened, veteran shinobi usually manage.

Genma runs to the bathroom and hastily shuts the door, but even that doesn't fully muffle the sound of his hysterical laughter.

* * *

Naturally, it would've been too easy if things had stayed simple, after that.

Sakura talks now, unhesitatingly and without scruples, and sometimes, Kakashi muses that she really may have been onto something when she joked that he might regret letting her speak freely.

It's not even that she's _disrespectful_ or anything, but for somebody whose age is barely in the double-digits and who spent their impressionable childhood years under a ruthless conditioning program, surrounded by masked automatons, the girl has a sharp tongue and wicked wit.

Genma, with his infallible good humour even in the shadow ranks and permanent schadenfreude at Kakashi's expense, takes to Sakura's newly-revealed personality with nigh-sadistic glee. The two bicker and bitch and bluster and rope Yugao into roasting Kakashi at any and every opportunity, and Kakashi can't even get mad at them for it, damn him.

For her part, Yugao takes to Sakura like an older sister would, and it could almost be called _cute_ how the kid always lays her bedroll beside the other kunoichi's, or makes sure she has her favourite flavour of granola on hand for when the swords-mistress runs out. There's camaraderie there, and Kakashi mentally reviews Sakura's associations - at least those he's aware of - and wonders whether having a female figure in her life is at least in part responsible for bringing the kid out of her shell.

As for Kakashi himself...well. He can begrudgingly admit that their newest recruit is fairly reliable, and she clearly, although, perhaps unconsciously, _cares_ for the unit. The first time she notices him go without breakfast on a mission, she launches a granola bar at his head so fast that he only _just_ catches it.

"Chakra is energy. How do you hope to replenish it if you don't give it fuel, taicho?" she admonishes, managing to convey stern, maternal disappointment despite being all of ten years old and half his height.

That's another thing - on missions, they're called by their masks - Yugao is Fox, Genma's Gecko, Kakashi's Hound-taicho, but in down-time or during training, the girl refers to the other two by their given names freely. Only sometimes, if she wants something or wants to tease, she'll tack on a cheeky 'senpai' at the end, which never fails to make Genma laugh and Yugao preen.

Kakashi is only ever 'taicho'.

She's never used his given name, nor any variation thereof. Simply 'Hound-taicho' on missions, and 'taicho' when not. He wonders, absently, why that distance stings.

It's not like he cares.

He just wishes for equality, is all.

(he thinks of an evening in his apartment, five months after gaining Mongoose, thinks back to a particularly vicious skirmish with missing-nin that had left the whole team too exhausted to go and report, deciding to go their separate ways for the night and meet the next morning. He'd gone home, collapsed in his apartment and tried to ignore how the edges of his vision were slowly beginning to get swallowed by dark splotches.

"You didn't even attempt to dress your wounds? C'mon, taicho."

The kunai was sent flying before Kakashi even registered that he'd consciously reached for it. He'd snapped to awareness, suddenly on-guard as he blinked away the sluggishness of blood-loss.

Then, he'd slumped.

Sakura was standing in the doorway to his bedroom, dressed in the standard uniform sans flak jacket and with a large, green bag in her hands that he vaguely recognised as his rarely-used first-aid kit.

"What are you even doing here?" He'd asked, though they both knew it's mostly rhetorical. "How did you get past the traps?"

Sakura had the nerve to shoot him a wry grin.

"Making sure our team leader doesn't bleed out." She'd said, then stepped further into the room. "And I used the front door."

She'd showed him a silver key, one he knew he'd given to Gai when he'd first moved in to his apartment, and Kakashi hated the fact that every interaction with the girl led to more questions than answers.

"So," she'd started, faux lightly, before her tone turned a touch more serious, "are you going to cooperate and let me stitch up the gash in your stomach, or do I have to knock you out?"

Kakashi'd scoffed, but the action had made his side flare up with unexpected pain and with one last, baleful glare, he'd subsided.

"Good taicho." The girl had the gall to say as she climbed onto the bed and started pulling things out of his med-kit.

Kakashi had been too tired to snarl, but he'd narrowed his eyes at his subordinate.

"I'm not a dog." He'd pointed out sharply, then sucked in a quiet breath at the first sting of antiseptic.

"Really?" Sakura had asked absently and Kakashi watched as she threaded the needle with a mildly alarming efficiency. "And here I thought the Hatake Clan was linked with wolf spirits."

Kakashi had wondered, not for the first time, _how_ she knew some of the things she knew. But even his curiosity was not enough to stop his bitter scoff.

"That's just a legend. Besides, there is no more Hatake Clan."

A sharp pain bloomed in his thigh and he realised the brat had _pinched him!_!

"You're still alive, aren't you? Despite your best efforts otherwise."

Kakashi had blinked, stupefied.

Not even Gai had the nerve to call him out on his recklessness, making up for the lack of lectures with hovering over Kakashi after particularly shitty missions.

"What are you implying?"

"Not implying. I'm calling you out." She'd corrected, and there was a new depth to her gaze that had made Kakashi shift minutely, suddenly uneasy. "If you're so eager to die, don't do it on a mission. Save your teammates the trauma."

Kakashi had a sudden, very unpleasant flashback to something he'd once said to Obito and it _stung_.

"Who did you lose?" He'd asked quietly, because that level of bluntness can only come from previous experience, that much Kakashi knew.

Sakura had met his eyes, undaunted, and smiled. Only it wasn't really a smile, but a flash of bared teeth, and the expression had been sharp, cold, and edged with so much pain that Kakashi had felt it in his bones.

 _Everyone._ )

* * *

A year after Danzo's death, eight months after Sakura joined Team Ro, and three months after Kakashi all but ordering her to talk, Kakashi gets his wish.

Now, he only regrets he hadn't been more careful in what he'd wished for.

It's a simple mission, as far as their usual go, and that probably should've been the first warning sign. Hiding in the treeline as extra security for a squad of three chunin and a jounin escorting some Hidden Frost noble and his entourage of eight is so far below their usual difficulty range that it's essentially a paid vacation.

Naturally, everything goes wrong the moment they step into Frost.

All Kakashi hears is a soft thump, and when he glances over, he sees the jounin leader on his knees. It's only a few seconds later that he, and the rest of the chunin, register the kunai sticking out of the man's throat, having pierced straight through his trachea.

One of the noble's entourage turns, viper-quick, and one of the chunin falls, his throat slit.

It devolves into chaos after that.

Kakashi gives the signal, and, as one, his team converges on the newly-revealed shinobi. There's a massive pulse of chakra, and suddenly, there is no doubt that the eight men escorting the noble were anything _but_ ninja, and high-level at that, if the sheer volume of unsealed chakra is anything to go by.

Yet, Kakashi barely manages to drive his tanto through one of the men's backs and take out his liver before he feels something snap around his neck and he sways, dizzy.

 _Metal_. He thinks dazedly. _Chakra restricting metal collar._

He earns a hit in the few seconds it takes him to recover, a punishing kick to the solar plexus, a katana through his foot, and a punch to his kidney, but then he snaps to attention and dispatches the man trying to incapacitate him.

The pain, an old friend at this point, helps ground him, and it distracts him from the gaping emptiness where his chakra used to be.

That's two down by his hand alone, but when he gathers his wits enough to look up, it's not enough to be hopeful, because when he was indisposed, more enemies appeared, and that's when Kakashi knows for sure that this mission was more than it seemed from the very start.

Instead of the earlier eight, there's now around a dozen enemy shinobi still kicking, six of the original squad down for the count, but that is still not enough for Kakashi to feel any degree of comfort because his squad isn't faring much better.

Yugao is staggering, a deep, purple-tinged wound bleeding-freely over her thigh, and Kakashi knows without a doubt that the viscous, purple fluid glistening around the cut is nothing other than poison, and a potent one at that. He sends a kunai at one of the shinobi she's grappling with, and she capitalises on his moment of inattention to drive her tanto through his heart.

But then, as if the action had sapped her last remaining energy, she crumbles, and does not move again.

When he looks over to Genma, the tokujo isn't down yet, but he's injured, visibly favouring his right side even as he throws deadly-accurate senbon at pressure points and executes immaculately-timed Doton. In any other fight, Kakashi would place his money on Genma, because the man is slippery and difficult to pin down on his worst days, yet here, he's struggling, two of his opponents looking eerily like the Kingin Kyōdai, rendering the poison his senbon are always tipped with ineffective.

And Sakura – there are four bodies around the girl, and she's still standing, not yet downed, but she's on the defensive, protecting the last surviving chunin from the original team, fighting off her own enemies while trying to distract those aiming for the chunin, and Kakashi can see how much that's limiting her movements.

He dodges a kunai with his name on the handle, turns and twists out of the way of a kick that would've dislodged his kneecap, ducks under the swipe of a tanto and curses when he's too slow to dodge the lightning jutsu and feels his muscles spasm, but he bears through the pain.

Still, when he opens his eyes, the odds haven't changed; ten enemy shinobi against three of his team – he counts his blessings when Sakura manages to distract the four on her long enough to send the chunin away and he bolts, fast, back in the direction of the Land of Fire, and Kakashi can only hope he'll make it in time to call for reinforcements.

He twists, brings his fist up in a feint then goes low, aims for his opponent's centre of balance, but the man dodges and Kakashi follows. Even without chakra, he's fast, and it takes three shuriken and a kick to the back of the nin's knees, then Kakashi's grasping his head and twisting-!

His opponent falls to the ground, limp, his neck snapped.

Kakashi looks up, intents to call out, regroup, retreat, but he catches the exact moment Genma loses and falls, and Sakura crumbles to her knees a second later, palms slapping pitifully against the ground, and-!

 _This is it_. Kakashi thinks with grim certainty. _This is how the legend of the great Team Ro ends._

And then it doesn't.

Because ropes rise from the ground, some the width of Kakashi's thumb, others thicker than his arm, but all sharper than the end of a kunai, only on second glance, they aren't ropes at all but _roots_.

They curl, and then unfurl like coiled snakes and _strike_ , and within seconds, the field looks like a macabre knitting project gone wrong. The roots discriminate clearly and enter the enemy nins' bodies like they're made of butter, tearing through muscle and tissue and bone alike, entering around the liver and coming out through the lungs, or simply piercing straight through the heart, yet neither Kakashi nor Genma nor Yugao suffer so much as a _scratch_.

There's screaming, but even that dies out within seconds, and then, there's only the repeated thump of bodies hitting the ground and the steady drip-drop of blood.

Kakashi glances around, half expecting to see Tenzo, but in the back of his mind, he knows that that wasn't his old kouhai's Mokuton, oh no.

Sakura rises to her feet, and Kakashi notes that her mask had been knocked askew in the last skirmish, but for all the emotion the girl is showing, the absence of a physical mask makes little difference.

She heads over to Yugao and turns the kunoichi onto her back, then sets to methodically taking items from her pack – a vial of soldier pills, her canteen, gauze and disinfectant, and when Genma staggers over to her, Kakashi follows and instructs his ears to get with the program.

"-can't make the antidote now, not until I'm in my lab, maybe, but even then-!" he hears Genma panicking, but Sakura almost doesn't appear to be listening.

"Hold her down." she instructs instead, her tone flat yet authoritative, and Genma obeys probably more on automatic, though he loosens his grip on Yugao's legs when Sakura yanks up the other kunoichi's top and makes a careless cut on her lower stomach with blue-glowing fingers.

"What-?"

"I said," Sakura bites out, then uncorks her canteen and picks it up, " _hold her down_."

Then, before their eyes, she turns her right hand palm-up to the sky, the green glow of medical-ninjutsu surrounding it without a single hand-sign. She uses her left hand to tip her canteen over and pour out some water onto the chakra bubble in her right.

No water spills over or hits the ground, and Kakashi _wonders_.

"Even unconscious as she is, this won't be pleasant." She doesn't even glance up, just lays her right hand over the wound on Yugao's thigh and her left, now also glowing green, over the cut on her stomach. "Taicho, get her shoulders."

Kakashi obeys.

And then, as if that was the signal she needed, Sakura pushes the water in her right hand into Yugao's body.

Yugao thrashes and screams and writhes, and Kakashi and Genma have to tighten their hold, neither having expected such a pronounced reaction despite the warnings, but when Sakura draws the water out through the wound over Yugao's abdomen, it comes out with globs of purple caught in the green-tinged fluid.

"What is this?" Genma breathes, eyes wide as he watches their youngest member transfer the water and poison concoction to one of the pre-prepared test tubes.

"Medical ninjutsu." she replies simply, and repeats the process.

It takes four attempts before no more purple comes out with the water, and Sakura holds one of the test tubes out for Genma to take, only speaking when he hesitates.

"The technique draws out most of the poison, but it's not a cure-all. An antidote will still be needed when we get back to the Village."

Then, she tips two soldier pills into the palm of her hand and knocks them back, and Kakashi can feel the burst of chakra as her reserves are filled past their capacity, but the girl barely reacts. Instead, she bites her thumb and flashes through familiar seals, and the same volume of chakra she'd just chemically produced leaves her in a dizzying rush and in its place-!

Kakashi is really going to have _words_ with his youngest team member.

"What the fuck...?" Genma manages quietly, barely louder than a whisper, and Kakashi echoes the sentiment when the smoke clears, revealing a ten-foot-tall tiger with canines the size of Kakashi's _forearm_.

"Sakura-hime!" the beast greets cheerfully, putting the _really sharp teeth oh god_ right by Sakura's eye as it leans down to bump its forehead against the girl's.

"Eki-sama." Sakura replies calmly, raising a hand to scratch the enormous tiger behind the ear like one would a house cat. "I have a present for you. Multiple, actually"

The tiger rises to its full height and looks around, as if only just noticing the carnage around them.

"This whole feast for me?" it asks, voice trilling with pleasure. "This is why you're my favourite, hime."

Sakura, and Kakashi is about eighty percent convinced the girl is simply suicidal, just laughs.

"Don't tell Boshi-sama, but you're my favourite too." she teases - _teases_! - the beast of a summon, then adds sternly, "The ones in green are off-limits."

If it could, Kakashi is willing to bet the tiger would've rolled its eyes before it pounces away, and moments later, the sound of tearing flesh and the crunch of bone reaches the three of them as the tiger puts those truly fearsome teeth to their intended use.

Genma is looking a little green around the edges, and Kakashi turns to their youngest, hoping that his posture alone is enough for her to realise that he wants an explanation _now_.

Sakura shrugs.

"Mokuton is too distinctive. And their attack was too well-orchestrated to have been anything other than inside-intel."

The fact that she voices what he was thinking would've once been reassuring, but _now_ …

"We have been a team," Kakashi begins, careful to keep his voice steady even when all he wants is to grab the girl by the shoulders and _shake,_ "for _eight months_. I understand trust issues, _believe me_ , but there comes a point where keeping secrets becomes less a self-preservation tactic and more of self-sabotage. This, this here? This was the latter."

Genma winces in sympathy at the mild but thorough _bollocking_ he just gave the girl, but Sakura, if anything, looks even more unimpressed than she did before.

"They call you Kakashi of the Thousand Jutsu, no?" she asks idly, packing her canteen and gauze away, not even bothering to meet Kakashi's accusatory gaze. "Have you shared all thousand with your team? Would Genma be able to list every technique you can pull off? I doubt it. But because of your Sharingan, nobody bats an eye."

She rises to her feet then, and just as Kakashi thinks she's going to sway and lose her balance, the massive tiger is suddenly there, stabilizing her before she could fall.

"Well," she continues, and though her tone and her words are perfectly mild, there's ice in her gaze that freezes Kakashi in place, "it just so happens that some of us earned our secrets through hard work instead of _parting gifts_."

Then, she leans down and threads one arm under Yugao's knees and wraps another around her shoulders, and, with deceptive strength, lifts the other kunoichi clear off the ground. The blood-and-gore streaked summon crouches without being asked and allows Sakura to deposit Yugao on its back, before she too clambers up and arranges Yugao's head in her lap.

"Do try to keep up." She tosses over her shoulder, then the tiger bounds off, disappearing into the forest.

Kakashi blinks.

There were at least three rules he can think of that his youngest teammate just broke, but, to his own surprise, he doubts he's going to include that in his report. But he'll have to, especially as she left before the clean-up could-

Kakashi stops. Glances around.

There is nothing _to_ clean up.

Correction; there is blood, yes, entire pools of it, as well as scattered entrails here and there. But, apart from that, _nothing_. Kakashi would be hard-pressed to give an estimate of how many shinobi lost their lives there, much less what Village they belonged to. The only ones left are-

He swallows.

The _fallen_.

It's a quiet affair as he and Genma seal away those they had been ordered to protect in black-rimmed scrolls, before heading in the direction Sakura and Yugao had disappeared in.

"What are you going to do?" Genma asks after a few minutes of silence tick by, and Kakashi doesn't have to ask what he's referring to.

"I don't know." He admits, because it's Genma and he's tired. "I think that…before anything, I want to talk."

Genma shoots him an odd look, but whether it's at his uncharacteristic uncertainty or the words he'd uttered, he's not sure.

A couple more minutes pass by, and then, Kakashi almost gets a heart-attack when two bear-sized tigers suddenly cross their path.

"Hime did say you would be a while," one of them drawls, tail swishing slowly behind it, "but this was getting ridiculous."

"Who are you?" Kakashi feels justified to ask, even though the answer seems obvious.

The one that hadn't spoken bares its teeth, and the hair on Kakashi's nape stands on end.

"Your ride, obviously. Do keep up, dog-breath." It chastises, and Kakashi hears a grunt of surprise from his left and when he turns, Genma is perched awkwardly astride the first tiger, and Kakashi belatedly realises that it must've used his moment of distraction to sneak around and worm its way between Genma's legs.

"You getting on, or do you need a written invitation?" the one that had insulted him demands, tail flicking imperiously. "Because I will leave you to walk, don't test me."

Before he can think twice about it, Kakashi gets on the summon's back, pretending not to hear the muttered 'finally'.

"Oh, also;" Genma's ride adds, almost as an afterthought, "you are both invited to dinner at the hime's den. To, as she put it, 'clear the air'."

And then, before either of them can react, the cats are suddenly racing at nigh-breakneck speed, the landscape around them merging into unrecognisable blurs of colour while the wind is sharp enough Kakashi has to close his eyes.

The speed and rhythmic thump of pawn on the ground help mask the sound of his incredulous chuckle.

He wonders, sometimes, how Minato had felt, having to look after a tetchy genius child while the man himself had barely been a teenager. Well, he reckons he is finally beginning to understand, now that Sakura is a permanent part of his team. Always a minimum of three steps ahead, always keeping her cards close to her chest, always reacting, never initiating.

He really hopes she won't turn out to be some enemy plant or spy, because, Kami help him, he is actually starting to _like_ the brat.


	12. Chapter 12

**hello everyone!**  
 **as always, thank you for sticking with this story of mine, and for your support and love for the previous chapter!**

 **now, just a comment about the characterisation i'm going with:**

 **sai: e. looks like he could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll. my soft, artsy, emotionally-constipated son.**

 **shin: seventeen-going-on-seventy attitude-wise. crafty and bitter and jaded and always assuming the worst because he's either right or pleasantly surprised. looks like he could kill you and will actually kill you.**

 **sakura: 50 shades of personality, ranging from i-kick-puppies-for-fun to emotional-range-of-a-teaspoon to will-outwit-a-Nara-for-a-chocolate-biscuit to SoftTM older sister. looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you.**

 **shisui: 'i am very small and very gay and i have no money so you can imagine the kind of stress i'm under', looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll.**

 **kakashi: BDE but it stands for Big Dumbass Energy. trying his best but is just TiredTM and DepressedTM and generally has more trust issues than vogue.**

 **yugao: the og Big Sister, will-stab-as-a-warning.**

 **genma: combination of the Vodka Aunt and the Mom FriendTM**

 **ages:**  
 **sakura - 11, sai - 12, shin - 17, shisui - 19, kakashi - 25, yugao - 21, genma - 28**

 **for shisui's 'sight' bit, think daredevil's radar vision/thermal imaging**

* * *

They'd kept in touch.

First, it was with knots on threads, an incredibly old, rudimentary communication system Shin had found in a book back where the only problem in his life had been his forced servitude in ROOT. They'd both learnt it, more as a neat trick and a way to pass messages undetected than any real appreciation for the art, both ignorant that one day, it'd be their only means of communication, what with Shisui's blindness.

Then, they'd realised that Shisui's crows had near-perfect memory and could repeat certain sounds, so it became a game of designing coherent messages with the crows' limited vocabulary.

Over time, that vocabulary expanded, but by that point, aliases and vague locations were a necessity more than a limitation. Four years of secret contact. Four years of not seeing each other. Four years of their only comfort being knowledge that the other was still alive. And then, two messages:

 _Imouto on mission. Otouto at school. All well. Miss you._

And the response:

 _In three days, meet at sundown by Hashirama's feet. Miss you too._

And Shin, the chess master, the planner, the genius, _listened_.

He's always been helpless when it came to Shisui, and this time is no different.

He slips out, undetected, through the tiny gap during the changeover of the guard rotation at the Main Gates, then, he's running. He gets to the Valley of the End when the last rays of the setting sun are level with the waterfall, making it dance in shades of brilliant, refracted light, and the water vapour gleam rainbow. He watches, mesmerised, mind stuck musing the power yet transient nature of the scene.

And then-

" _Shin_."

The single word, his _name_ , is enough to make him freeze, a vice clenching around his lungs and heart, and he turns, slowly, as if any faster would break the illusion and he'd wake up.

But no.

Shisui is _there_.

He sees little more than a silhouette, illuminated as Shisui is by the setting sun, yet his brain still works in overtime to catalogue all the differences he can see.

For one, the Uchiha's hair is longer. The unruly curls of ROOT have been allowed to grow out, and now they frame his face and brush his shoulders, a long fringe covering the harsh shape of blackout Aburame glasses. And then there's what can only be the _monk robe_.

Shisui steps closer, out of the glare of the sun, and he's within touching distance now, and Shin feels a lump in his throat, eyes desperately roaming, trying to commit as much to memory as he can. _Then_ -!

"You idiot!" he chastises, smacking the Uchiha on the arm. "Do you not realise how dangerous this is?"

And Shisui laughs, surprised and bright, and reaches out for the hand that had clasped onto his sleeve instead of falling away and tugs Shin closer.

"I know, I know." He agrees, good-naturedly, then tugs Shin down as he sits down on the riverbank. "But I had to see you."

Shin snorts before he can stop himself, and Shisui has the grace to look bashful.

"Well. You know what I mean." He corrects, embarrassed, then shrugs. "But I can essentially see you with my chakra sense now, so..."

Interest piqued, Shin crosses his legs and tilts his head.

"Like the Byakugan?" he asks, curious, and Shisui hums, considering.

"I… suppose that's a good way to put it. But instead of seeing the tenketsu and the pathways it's more like night vision goggles? Almost everything has chakra, so almost everything is lit up, but it's just... _wrong_. Fuzzy. No details."

In the back of his mind, the part that never sleeps, never rests, never stops, Shin's already running through uses and applications and the ramifications of the realisation that _blind_ doesn't actually mean _unseeing_ in Shisui's case.

Then, he realises the raven is still waiting for a response, and defaults to humour as he teases;

"At least be glad you don't need a walking stick. I don't think your dignity could take it."

Shisui laughs again, free and startled.

"I haven't seen you properly in almost four years and all you've done so far is call me names and bully me!" he whines, though the smile stays on his face, so Shin knows he's not actually complaining.

He scoffs.

"Please. You'd be dead without me." Though he says it jokingly, Shisui sobers, a serious expression taking over his face.

"Yeah." He admits, voice thick and a bittersweet smile on his face. "I really would be."

And _that_ \- that was the exact opposite of what Shin was aiming for, and he groans.

"I didn't- oh, _come on_." he sighs, torn between guilty and exasperated. "You know I didn't mean anything by it."

"I know." Shisui reassures, but Shin doesn't get the chance to relax before he continues. "But it doesn't change the fact that I literally _owe you my life_."

Shin facepalms. "Oh, Kami, just stop talking." He groans. "You're so _embarrassing_."

Shisui chuckles. "Bully!" he whines, then adopts a mischievous expression. "But, I guess, you _could_ make it up to me."

Shin is wary but he's having too much fun to actually stop.

"Oh? Do tell."

Shisui holds his hands out, fingers pointed down and palms inclined towards Shin.

"Will you let me do the 'blind monk' shtick properly? I want to _see_ you."

Shin swallows, and hopes it isn't as loud as it feels. _Dangerous._

"I- yeah. Okay."

When Shisui's hands actually land on his face, Shin tries his hardest not to hold his breath. After a few seconds of gentle, ghosting touches, sweeping from his brow, to his cheekbones, down the bridge of his nose and over his cupid's bow, Shin huffs a laugh.

"You still have callouses." He points out, not sure what he expected or what inspires the impromptu observation, but the statement is out before he can stop it.

He doesn't open his eyes, but he thinks Shisui smiles.

"Of course. What, did you think I've just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs? Lighting candles, praying and trying not to let the Sandaime's son recognise me, that's it?" Shisui laughs, and there's genuine joy in the sound. "The monks use chakra. The Guardians train there as well, not to mention that the eternal flame that surrounds the grounds is a chakra fire you have to tend to. And the monks train, too. Though they're more partial to katas, they don't particularly care if I use weapons when I do mine, as long as I don't brain myself on them."

"How gracious of them." Shin mutters, trying not to move his lips too much and disturb Shisui's fingers.

Shisui snorts, and finally pulls away. The spell broken, Shin opens his eyes and immediately feels off-balance at how close Shisui is, and how open his expression is.

 _What is this?_

"I just think they don't want my brain-matter on their pristine floors." Shisui jokes, but before Shin can reply, he adds, "Also, you need to eat more."

Shin splutters.

"Don't make that face!" Shisui chastises, despite the fact that he has no idea what kind of face Shin is making, and his hand flies up to poke Shin in the cheek with unerring accuracy. "I nearly cut myself on your cheekbones, and your wrist is far too thin!"

There's a riposte on the tip of Shin's tongue, a cutting 'cancer will do that to you', but he bites it back. That's neither here nor there, and he doesn't want their first meeting in years ruined by his _goddamn_ lungs.

So he settles for a teasing, "Yes, _mom_." Instead, complete with an exasperated eye-roll, but Shisui frowns.

"I always thought _you_ were the mom." He says, a propos nothing, and Shin doesn't even try to mask his complete bafflement.

" _What_?"

"You know," Shisui gestures abstractly, as if he doesn't understand how Shin can require an explanation, "of our kids. Sakura and Sai. You were always more motherly."

" _Our kids_." Shin repeats incredulously, not quite able to get over the possessive adjective. "You're _nineteen_. And we're not _married_."

"Oh, come on." Shisui grins, but there's something fragile in the expression, and his voice isn't as strong as usual when he says, "We were a little married, in ROOT."

Shin almost asks how one can be 'a little' married, but finds himself biting his tongue again.

Not just because he realises that the uncharacteristic vulnerability in Shisui's voice is due to his confusion and abject refusal, but also because his stomach _flips_ when Shisui says 'we' and 'married' in the same sentence.

And suddenly, he _understands_.

It doesn't make the feeling go away. It doesn't even make him feel _better_. All it does is add to the confusion surrounding the entire exchange, because what does one do when they find themselves in-

He cuts his thought process off, because the answer is clear.

 _Nothing._

He's ill, badly so, aspergillosis swapped out for cancer, thanks to the overeager medics. Shisui is a presumed-dead elite jounin, currently masquerading as a blind monk, a hundred miles away from Konoha. Starting anything, as they were now, would just be cruel. That is, if Shisui even _wanted_ to start anything.

Besides, all Shin's ever known is blood and death and pain. He doesn't know what to do with good things, good people.

 _(the seal on Sai's tongue, the emptiness in Sakura's eyes, the hollows where_ Shisui's _eyes used to be-!)_

He'd ruin Shisui, and he wouldn't even realise he was doing it.

So, he smiles, even though the expression is lost on Shisui, and does what he does best and _acts_.

"Yeah," he manages, a good ten seconds too late to be natural, but his voice is steady, and the tremble in his hands visible only to him, "I suppose you're right."

But Shisui _knows him_ , and the half-smile that persisted on his face through Shin's realisation melts into a frown, though his words, when he speaks, don't reflect it.

"Of course I am." He agrees, flippant and cocksure like the fifteen-year-old Shin once knew. "Now, tell me, how are Sai and Sakura doing?"

"Oh, they're monsters." Shin laughs, grateful for the change of subject. "Sai's in the Academy, set to be graduating next year. He got a bit of a shock at the start, what with the level of his classmates, but with some encouragement from Sakura, he's now taken to trolling his teacher, and the Hokage by proxy." Shin adamantly ignores the wave of warmth that hits him when Shisui laughs. "And Sakura's been poached for ANBU. She's actually on your cousin's old team, and… I think they're good for her."

"She's on Team Ro? With Hatake-senpai as her taicho?" Shisui asks, eyebrows raised and tone disbelieving. "Isn't that a bit cruel of the Sandaime, giving him another child genius, considering what the Village at large thinks happened with the last one?"

Shin shrugs, and is for once glad for Shisui's blindness. He isn't sure he wants the other to see the look on his face just then.

"I don't think the Hokage is particularly concerned about his shinobi's 'feelings'." He replies simply, unable to fully keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Shisui falls silent for a few seconds, seeming contemplative, and Shin wonders whether he's said too much.

"Yeah, you're probably right." The Uchiha says eventually, surprising Shin. "And I'll get the full story out of you at some point."

Shin huffs, amused despite himself.

Of course, just like he knows Shisui, Shisui knows _him_. It was silly of him to think that the other wouldn't notice his odd reaction.

"Sure, whatever you say." He agrees glibly, knowing that it'll likely be a long time before that will happen.

They drift from topic to topic after that. Shisui all but demands a full play-by-play of their takedown of Danzo, Shin wants a retelling with a comparable level of detail of the Uchiha's time at the Fire Temple, and then it's little stories and anecdotes and memories and 'you'll never guess what's, and they only realise how much time has passed when Shin can't stifle a full-body shiver, as if only just realising how much the temperature has dropped.

"Oh, wow." Shisui murmurs, and then, before Shin can react, there's a small bonfire crackling merrily before them, mere inches from where his feet are stretched out. Another shiver wrecks his frame at the sudden heat, and Shisui's arm wraps around his shoulders seemingly on automatic, and Shin belatedly realises how they'd drifted closer to each other as the hours passed by, now sitting thigh-to-thigh and shoulder-to-shoulder on the riverbank.

He should head home. It's probably around three in the morning. He could make it back before dawn.

But, when Shisui turns to him with a hopeful expression and asks him to 'stay a little longer', Shin can do little but agree.

Over the years, he's gotten good at eliminating weaknesses. Hard to care about your own life when you're constantly a breath away from death. But no matter what he did, no matter how much of his humanity was stripped, three weaknesses remain.

And Shisui is the biggest one of them all.

* * *

Sakura drops Yugao off at the hospital, hands the vial containing the poison to a baffled nurse, and high-tails it back home to hopefully explain the situation to Shin and get Sai as far away from their apartment as possible.

When she gets home, Shin is already there, and there's a small, yet unbelievably bright smile on his face, and the expression makes him look years younger. There's only ever been one person who was able to change Shin's mood quite so drastically, and Sakura manages a little smile herself, reassured by the knowledge of Shisui's continued well-being, indirect as the confirmation may be.

There had been tension before them for a few months, though they had both been careful to keep it down when Sai was present, but Sakura still remembers the situation as if it had been yesterday rather than almost half a year ago.

* * *

 _Sakura opens the door to their apartment and momentarily freezes._

 _There is another boy apart from Sai in their living room. A familiar boy, even if the only part of his face she can see is covered by a high collar and dark glasses._

Shino.

 _"_ Aneue _!" Sai doesn't quite jump to his feet, but there's a note of panic in his voice that worries Sakura. Since when was Sai_ afraid _of her?_

 _"Tadaima, Sai-chan." She greets warmly, dropping her pack by the door and walks further into the house, pausing to ruffle Sai's hair when she gets close enough, and she feels her brother relax under her hand. "Who's your friend?"_

There _. Sai tenses again, and Sakura barely refrains from frowning._

 _"Aburame Shino-san. We were paired for a project and..." Sai trails off, and somehow manages to fidget despite staying perfectly still._

 _"And discovered that you get along?" She finishes teasingly, making sure to keep the pressure of her hand on Sai's head gentle and comforting and not let her confusion at her brother's behaviour show in her voice._

 _Again, Sai relaxes, and mutters a quiet 'hai'._

 _"Well, I'm assuming you haven't eaten?" she asks rhetorically, then turns to Shino. "How do you feel about oyakodon, Aburame-kun?"_

 _"My feelings should be the least relevant considering I am the one imposing on your hospitality." Shino murmurs, and Sakura is amused and endeared to note that his voice is a good half an octave higher, and lacking the drone-like tone she remembered from her timeline. "However, oyakodon is perfectly acceptable. And, forgive me, but I do not know your name. Why? Because Sai-san only ever refers to you as 'aneue'."_

 _Sakura laughs, she can't help herself. Apparently, no matter what timeline she's in, she's always going to get saddled with some emotionally-stunted preteens._

 _Luckily, she has experience in this field, so she keeps her smile warm and patient and doesn't remark on Shino's quirk, recognising it for the nervous tick that it is._

 _"Your presence is not an imposition, Aburame-kun. And I am Sakura, and trust me, there's nothing to forgive. You're perfectly correct in your observation that Sai-chan doesn't refer to me by name, so there's no way for you to have known."_

 _Shino nods, and the line of his shoulders softens as he too seems to release some tension. "Thank you, Sakura-san."_

 _Sakura waves him off and heads towards the kitchen, already mentally running through the list of ingredients she's going to need for the meal she's planning._

 _Half-way through chopping the onion, Sai comes up to her, his face perfectly blank but his posture suspiciously resigned._

 _"I'm sorry, aneue." he murmurs, stopping an arm's length away but conspicuously not touching, as if unsure he's welcome. "If I had known you'd be back from your mission early, I wouldn't have invited Shino-san."_

 _Sakura slowly sets the knife down and breathes out through her nose, counting back from ten before she faces the raven._

 _"And why not?" she asks, voice carefully neutral, even as her mind is running through scenarios and she has a suspicion she's not going to like Sai's answer._

 _"Because- because I_ failed _." Sai replies, a tiny frown creasing his brows as he regards her. "Because I got_ attached _."_

 _"Sai-chan," Sakura starts, then cuts herself off, taking a deep breath and biting back the incredulous_ what the everloving fuck-?! _that threatens to escape. "Sai-chan, why would you making a friend be a problem?"_

 _"Because aniki said," Sakura sees red, "he said that I shouldn't bother making friends because we don't know how long the Hokage's benevolence will last for. And that I'll likely be poached for ANBU as soon as I make chunin."_

 _"_ Aniki _said that, huh." she seethes, only belatedly realising that she's oozing Killing Intent when she sees Shino freeze in her periphery._

 _"Sai." she begins once she reins her anger in, and the lack of the -_ chan _and her serious voice make her brother snap to attention. "Normally, I'd present a united front with Shin. But this one time, he couldn't have been more wrong if he'd tried."_

 _Then, because she thinks it's time, she barrels on._

 _"When I threw you out of the Hokage's office window, I did so to make a deal. My service to the Village, in exchange for your normal childhood and Shin's treatment. As long as I stay in Sarutobi's good graces, he can't touch you. You'll only end up in ANBU if you choose to. So make friends in the Academy. Stay a genin as long as you wish. Have sleep-overs. Start silly rivalries._ Live _."_

 _Sai is staring at her with wide eyes that glisten wetly, but Sakura's not done._

 _"I love you, otouto. I want you to be_ happy _."_

 _Then, between one second and the next, there're arms wrapped around her waist and moisture in the crook of her neck, then Sai is darting away and heading back towards Shino, his back straight and a new confidence in his step._

 _Sakura stays long enough to serve both boys with steaming bowls, then she heads to her room and hops out the window, and really, there's only one destination on her mind._

 _She's at the hospital in minutes._

 _She throws open the window to Shin's room and barges in, ignoring his startled 'Sakura? What on earth-?' as she marches up to his bed and pins him with a sharp glare._

 _"Tell me, aniki," she murmurs, her voice deadly calm despite the red haze tinging her vision, "what happened to 'we're doing this so Sai has a chance at a childhood'?"_

 _Shin frowns, visibly baffled. "What are you talking about? Nothing happened, what-?"_

 _"Then why," Sakura cuts him off, not in the mood to wait for him to figure out why she's angry, "did you tell Sai that he shouldn't bother making friends?"_

 _Shin freezes, and comprehension dawns on his face, but Sakura doesn't give him a chance to try and talk his way out of this._

 _"I get that this situation isn't ideal. That being reduced from a jounin-level secret mastermind who could go toe-to-toe with Uchiha geniuses and bring down a war-hawk, to a bedridden civilian is a lot to adjust to. I_ get _that. But how awful a person do you have to be to take that frustration out on_ Sai _?!"_

* * *

She'd bollocked Shin, then. Thoroughly and mercilessly shamed him for his behaviour towards Sai, and had only stopped when she felt her control slip and Killing Intent began to leak out again.

They were distant, after that, sharper and blunter with each other, but Sai did tell her, with no small amount of bewilderment in his voice, that Shin had come to him to apologise and explain that he'd been wrong.

Sai's friendship with Shino continued.

It was that friendship that Sakura plans to exploit now.

She's about 85% sure that Sai is going to take her spot on Team 7 when he graduates. That means, that if everything else goes the same, he'll get Kakashi as his sensei. And if they want Sai to be able to leave ROOT behind, then Kakashi can absolutely not meet Sai now.

"Aniki," she calls into the flat, using the term for the first time in months, and Shin must be very happy because the smile on his face grows as he turns towards her, an expectant expression on his face, "I need your help."

* * *

Genma watches Kakashi the whole way back, but for all that the ANBU mask hides his face, Genma could write a _novel_ about what his Captain is thinking based on the Copy-nin's posture alone.

Kakashi hasn't taken Sakura's little "surprise" well. His 'a team shouldn't keep secrets' spiel had been unexpected and, frankly, Genma privately thought Sakura had been justified in calling him out for his hypocrisy, but the more he thinks about it, the more he can see where Kakashi was coming from.

Bypassing the can of worms that is the Yamato-Rin comparison that his brain immediately draws, he's willing to bet that the real issue Kakashi's battling with is that Sakura was a force to be reckoned with _before_ she revealed the Mokuton and impossible medical-ninjutsu. For all that she's around half their age (almost a third, in Genma's case), Sakura has always been able to hold her own in spars. Despite being generally mild-mannered, there's a certain ruthlessness to the girl whenever she fights that seems to demand she press every advantage available to her to the max.

He's seen her use chili-bombs when fighting Kakashi, has seen her throw dirt in Yugao's eyes, disorient _him_ using a vertigo genjutsu so he couldn't aim his senbon properly. All in all, Sakura is a study in deceptive competence, and he's really wishing Kakashi had realised that sooner.

Still.

Going by Kakashi's posture, he's taken this case of misinformation _personally_.

Genma stifles a groan. When Kakashi gets personal, he gets _mean_ , and Genma's not sure their team can survive that.

He startles when the tigers suddenly stop dead and all but throw him and Kakashi off their backs.

"The Village is fiv- no, fifteen minutes' run that way." The one that had been carrying Kakashi announces imperiously, and Genma nods in acknowledgement when Kakashi seems keen to pretend deaf.

The summons may not have been the most easy-going, but he has a feeling that disrespecting them is the last thing they need.

He's proven right not two seconds later.

"Are you sure?" the one Genma had ridden asks, features screwed up in what he hesitantly labels as the feline equivalent of a frown, before it casts him and Kakashi an assessing glance. "Sakura-hime is faster than Kagami-sama was, that's true, but surely they're not _that_ slow?"

Genma _freezes_.

There's been only _one_ Kagami that he's vaguely aware of, and judging by the way Kakashi tenses even _further_ , he's made the same connection.

But what on earth is _Sakura_ doing with an _Uchiha_ summoning contract?

The one that had carried Kakashi sniffs imperiously.

"That one," it inclines its head to point at Kakashi, " _bled_ all over my flank. And with how loud he's _thinking_ , I don't think he can spare the energy to run much faster than a stumbling cub."

And with that cutting assessment, it disappears in a cloud of smoke.

"Wait-!" Genma calls out before the other one can follow suit, and his tiger stops, tilting its head in a clear 'go on', and he hastens to obey. "Thank you." He manages, clears his throat, and swallows. Unlike Kakashi, he _does_ have _some_ self-preservation. "For- the transport. May I ask what you are called?"

The tiger seems briefly surprised, then amused. "My brother is Yū. I am Ryūnosuke. But," it sidles closer, nudging at Genma's hand with its nose and he hesitantly places it on top of its head, fingers twitching before he gathers his courage and lightly scratches around the ear. " _You_ may call me Ryū."

Then, with a final swish of its tail and what Genma is about 93% sure is a _wink_ , Ryū also disappears.

"What was that?" Kakashi asks sharply, and Genma doesn't have to ask to know what he's referring to.

He sighs.

"It's not wise to antagonise _everyone_ you meet." He shoots back, tired, and, now that he's not being carried and has to carry his own weight, _aching_ all over. " _Especially_ not summons. And definitely not _noble Uchiha summons_."

Kakashi's face screws up at that, but he doesn't comment, turning instead in the direction Yū had indicated for the Village.

(Out of what Genma's willing to bet is almost entirely _spite_ , they make it to the Main Gates in ten minutes.)

* * *

When they get to the hospital, they learn that Yugao is set to be discharged within a few hours, despite still being unconscious. The bulk of the poison had been removed, so the antidote is more precautionary than anything, as the nurses assure them that Yugao's immune system could do the job for them if given the time, but it'll eliminate any potential risk, so they'd recommend it.

Naturally, they opt for the antidote.

Kakashi leaves the hospital within minutes, and Genma sighs and asks one of the nurses to send a genin messenger for him when Yugao does wake, and he too heads home, eager to wash the mission grime off and maybe disinfect his wounds, if he has energy left.

When the messenger comes, Genma takes a detour to Kakashi's place and all but drags the man back to their teammate's room, though when they get there, Yugao insists that she's well enough to go to Yakiniku instead.

(privately, Genma thinks she simply doesn't want to see the look of abject misery and annoyance on Kakashi's face at the prospect of having to spend any more time in the hospital than absolutely necessary. Genma can understand why.)

In Yakiniku, they debrief Yugao as much as they can, and Genma wishes for a camera, because the look on her face is too complex for words, yet manages to reflect everything he was feeling perfectly.

"I got this." Kakashi announces, a propos nothing, holding up a single, square note. "It _flew_ into my room _as a bird_ about two hours ago."

Genma blinks.

The paper…is just a piece of paper.

He shoots Kakashi an odd look. Maybe there was some airborne drug in the air when they went to get Yugao?

Then, he glances at the note.

' _Team dinner, 6pm tomorrow, at this address._

 _P.S. don't be late, taicho!'_

"That's…the Barracks." Genma says, before he can stop himself. He has half a mind to correct himself, but in the end, doesn't bother. Kakashi and Yugao both know exactly what he means, and neither are about to criticize him for his choice of language, especially when all three know it's accurate.

After all, the subsidized genin housing was never going to be the lap of luxury.

But what's their ANBU-level teammate doing _there_?

"Why does Sakura-chan live there?" Yugao asks no-one in particular, voicing Genma's thoughts.

"I suppose we'll see." Kakashi replies cryptically, and pockets the note.

Then, without leaving a single yen, like the _jackass_ he is, he disappears.

* * *

The next evening, all three jounin meet in front of the building indicated in the note, at six sharp. It says something about how seriously Kakashi is taking this that he actually listened and came on time, habitual lateness nowhere to be found. They climb the stairs together, and come to a stop before the door marked 3C, yet no-one reaches out to knock. There's a hesitance weighing heavy in the air, a question of ' _what will this change_ ' that none of them wants to voice.

Because it will change _something_ , that's for sure.

Genma raises a hand, but before his knuckles can connect with the wood, the door swings open, and all three fight hard not to recoil.

The first thing that greets them is the mouth-watering aroma of homemade food, which, in itself, is not unusual, though the combination of scents would doubtless make an Akimichi proud and give an Inuzuka a headache.

Then, their attention falls on the person who'd opened the door, and it's decidedly _not_ Sakura.

A boy, likely in his mid-teens, with silver hair and flinty graphite eyes, dressed in an oversized burgundy sweater and black lounge pants stands before them.

The expression on his face is less that of a welcoming host and more of a merchant assessing his wares – wary, watchful eyes flicker from Kakashi to Yugao to Genma, picking out weaknesses and seemingly seeing into their very souls.

Yet, the third and most disquieting thing of all is the stench of _hospital_ and _death_ that clings to every inch of the boy's skin and clothing, assaulting their senses with the very smell shinobi quickly learn to actively avoid.

Once the realisation of _not-right_ registers in their minds, it's suddenly easier to see that the red staining his cheeks is pigment instead of a natural flush. Or that his eyes are sunken, or that his hair is thin; that the overlarge sweater is there less for comfort and more to hide bony wrists and even bonier fingers, and cover as much as possible of a body that is visibly underweight from sickness.

"Aniki, stop making that face." A familiar voice calls out from deeper within the flat, and the expression on the boy's face finally shifts.

"What face?" He asks, and though his eyes never leave Kakashi's team, the corner of his mouth quirks up. "You can't even _see_ my face."

"I don't have to be able to see you to know what you're doing." Sakura corrects, and there's humour in her words, though they sound chastising. "Let our guests in, please."

When the teen finally moves aside and Kakashi has to step past him, he tries very hard not to make it obvious that he's holding his breath.

Then, he's shocked for an entirely different reason.

He's seen subsidised genin housing. He's lived in the chunin version for a few years, has regularly guarded his sensei's son and seen his 'housing situation'. Although the building they're in is definitely right, and the corridor outside is appropriately dinghy, the apartment he steps into could not be further from the standard genin flat if it _tried_.

For one, it feels like a _home_.

The windows are bare, stripped of any shutters or curtains, and _clean_ , which allows the setting afternoon sun to illuminate the walls painted in its colours, giving the room a warm, welcoming glow. Every inch of furniture is covered with something soft – from the sofa throws to the cushions on the floor, to plush carpets and frilly poufs, everything exudes _comfort_ in a way shinobi seldom manage. The kitchen is the only thing that doesn't fit the theme, old and rickety as it is, but the wall above the stove and counters is _covered_ with pages and pages of drawings and ink paintings, successfully drawing attention away from the less-than-stellar appliances.

Yet what draws Kakashi's eye the most – and, judging by Gemma's stilted breath, he's not the only one to notice – is the only art piece in the living room. Placed where one would normally find a TV, four masks hang from the wall, arranged in a diamond-shape. One azure, one vermilion, one pure white and one an oppressive black. Though the animals on the masks don't match, their colours and placements speak for themselves. Kakashi's eyes flit over the dog mask, to the wolf, then the bird. Lastly, they fall on the unknown, vaguely rodent-like shape, and he frowns.

 _Assembling the Shishin? For anybody who doesn't know what they did, it's just quirky decoration, but..._ His eyes flicker from Sakura, to the nameless teen, and he catches the last bit of a silent conversation between the two, before his youngest recruit turns back to the stove and her brother closes the door and flashes them a perfectly false, inviting smile. _For them... For them, it's a warning. A_ reminder _of what they can do._

"I love what you've done with the place." Genma comments idly, perfectly blasé, trademark senbon in place, giving the flat an obvious once-over, and Kakashi can't tell whether the comment is genuine or a dig for information.

Sakura laughs, short and startled, and starts separating the food she's preparing into smaller bowls.

"Perks of having an artist in the family." She replies, and it's light and _cheeky_ and nothing like her brother, _or_ her mission persona. "Free interior design."

Yugao's eyes slant to the thus-nameless teen, and he snorts, shaking his head.

"Not me. Our otouto's the artist." He answers the unvoiced question, and Kakashi hums.

"Aniki can just about finger-paint without incident, we prefer not to tempt fate." Sakura tacks on, and she's still _teasing_ , relaxed, as if they're not here to talk about her pulling out an _extinct Nature Transformation_ after a _year_ of acquaintance.

"I feel attacked." The teen replies, in perfect deadpan, his expression betraying no emotion, yet Sakura just laughs again and turns to the low table Kakashi only just notices, arms laden with bowls.

"Forgive my manners earlier," she apologises as she sets the food down on the chabudai and straightens, "but I didn't trust myself to step away from the food in case I burned it."

She gestures to the table, curiously six-seating for, to Kakashi's knowledge, a 'family' of three.

"Let's sit down, and I'll do introductions!"

When they all move to obey, she begins.

"This is Shin, my aniki. Shin, this is Shiranui Genma, Uzuki Yugao, and Hatake Kakashi, my taicho."

"A pleasure." Shin replies, dry and wry as Genma at his worst, but with a warm ( _fake_ ) smile on his face.

It settles down from there, and they make a start on their food after a quick mutter of _itadakimasu._ After he's tried everything from the liberal spread of dishes Sakura has laid out – including fried eggplant, and there's a niggling suspicion in the back of his mind, but he ignores it – Kakashi has to grudgingly admit that Sakura can _cook_. That in itself would be odd considering she's ANBU, but adding in the fact that she's ex-ROOT and _eleven years old_ at that, it just doesn't make _sense_.

Then, Yugao speaks, and Kakashi resigns himself to things not making sense for the rest of the dinner.

"You were in ROOT, weren't you?" she asks, and Kakashi notes the surprised look Sakura shoots him, though he's almost sure it goes unnoticed by the rest of their team. She's spoken openly about Shimura's attitude to his agents, so he doesn't know what Yugao is digging for. Though he knows intimately what the expression on Sakura's face means.

 _She thought I told them._

But whatever Sakura may think of him having kept that particular fact to himself, she doesn't voice it, choosing instead to nod.

"Yes. I was." She admits simply, sipping at her tea while Yugao frowns.

"You were involved in Shimura's trial somehow." Genma adds on, head tilted in a way Kakashi's grown to be wary of.

Sakura hums, while her brother just observes, quiet and judging, and that is somehow _worse_.

"Moreso in the circumstances that _led up to_ his trial, but yes." She corrects, and Kakashi thinks he hears a snort from Shin, but when he glances over, the teen's expression hasn't changed; he's still serious, eyes trained on his sister.

"You look surprised." Yugao points out, narrowing her eyes, and Kakashi almost startles.

To him, Sakura's expression hadn't changed, but now that Yugao points it out, he can see the minute widening of emerald eyes and the tiny downwards quirk to her lips.

"I just thought you knew this, is all." She says with a frown of her own, then adds in a light shrug, as if dismissing her words.

"How would we have known, though?" Yugao presses, and Kakashi reckons he shouldn't have encouraged the senpai-kouhai dynamic between his two female teammates quite as much as he had, because there is deep and genuine _concern_ in Yugao's voice now.

Sakura's eyes flicker to him, just for a second, then she looks down at the table, shrugging again, and Kakashi knows she won't betray him.

"I don't know." She deflects, offering the table a wry smile. "Sorry. I shouldn't have expected anything."

A breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding escapes him, and Kakashi feels himself relax.

"She assumed your taicho would've told you, as Hatake-san was in the Hokage's office when we brought in the evidence against Shimura."

 _Fuck._

With how intently he'd been studying Sakura and gauging her reaction, he'd completely forgotten about her 'brother', and now, the damning words are out there, and Kakashi can _feel_ Yugao and Genma staring at him in disbelief.

"You were _there_?!" Genma demands, voice rising at the end in his incredulity. "I thought you were the one to _apprehend_ Shimura and learned about it that way, not that you were there the whole time!"

Yugao is the opposite – calm and still, only her eyes, wide and accusative, betraying her reaction.

"You let me treat someone who'd brought down the most untouchable man in generations like a _child_." She starts quietly, and he can almost see the gears turning in her mind. "All this time, you _knew_ that the senpai-kouhai dynamic was a farce, but you didn't-!" she cuts herself off with a snort, looking down. "And there I was, like a fool, thinking that we can _help_ this time, in a way we failed to help Itachi. _Tch_."

The disdain and disappointment he hears in her voice tears into him even more than Genma's accusation.

"For the record, senpai," Sakura speaks up, laying a gentle hand over the fist Yugao has balled on the table, "I _appreciate_ our dynamic. I'd be very happy if it could continue."

"But you're not the child I've been treating you as." Yugao argues, her eyes glistening oddly. "The senpai-kouhai relation is based on superior experience and the resulting power imbalance, but there _isn't one_ between us. Hell, if there is, it might even go the _other_ way."

"You're right, I'm not a child." Sakura admits quietly, but she doesn't avert her gaze. "But you let me feel like I could be. I don't have to always watch myself, or be constantly vigilant, and that's _liberating_ in ways I don't know how to explain, but all I know is that I'd be devastated to lose my older sister."

At this point, it's undeniable that Yugao's eyes are glistening wetly because she's on the verge of tears. But, after Sakura's impromptu speech, she smiles, relaxing her fist to clasp hands with their youngest teammate instead. Sakura tugs her up, mutters a quick 'excuse us', and shepherds Yugao out of the dining area and into one of the adjoining rooms, which Kakashi presumes is the bedroom.

Genma manages a small smile at the interaction, but he's still glaring at Kakashi.

"I'm sure you have a reason." The tokujo says, mild as could be, even when his eyes are shooting daggers at him when he meets them. "So, let's hear it."

Kakashi sighs.

"I thought it might cause people to panic if they knew that Shimura was brought down by _children_." He explains, which is part of the reasoning, at least. He can't exactly go around admitting to a Hokage-issued gag-order or that the finer details of Shimura's takedown had…slipped his mind once the man was buried six feet under.

Yet, what greets his words is a snort, and this time, there is no doubt that it comes from Shin.

"That's your explanation, yet you got so _precious_ when Sakura didn't tell you about her Mokuton?" he asks, and it's not snide, not at all, but the word-choice _grates_ at Kakashi.

"Endangering your teammates' lives by not letting them know of the full extent of your abilities is very much deserving of getting ' _precious'_ over." He shoots back, tone betraying nothing, but Genma shifts a little beside him, doubtless able to tell just how close he is to snapping at a _kid half his age_.

"Perhaps." Shin allows, then his eyes narrow. "But recall your explanation, and look at the situation from Sakura's perspective. At ten years old, she was skilled enough to make it to ANBU. And that was _without_ revealing that she's a Mokuton user. Now, you know that she does, in fact, wield the Shodaime's Mokuton, and is the _second ever_ naturally-occurring Wood Release wielder in Konohagakure's history. Third, in total, but I refuse to count the Sannin's experiment as 'natural'."

 _He shouldn't know this, he shouldnotknowthis-!_

"That alone would've been enough to put a loose noose around her neck, no? Now, add to it the fact that she's proficient in medical ninjutsu. What does that make you think of?"

"Senju." Genma breathes, eyes wide, and Shin smiles humourlessly.

"Precisely." He agrees. "So, to set the scene: your teammate is an ex-ROOT, ex-Danzo's personal guard, who ultimately betrayed him and brought the Hokage enough incriminating information to bury Shimura ten times over. She's part of the most infamous ANBU team to come out of the last decade. _And_ she wields the Mokuton, has Tsunade-worthy chakra control and medical ninjutsu. And all that, while being younger than current _genin_."

Those sharp eyes turn to Kakashi, and the expression on the teen's face is nothing short of a challenge.

"Don't you think it might've _caused people to panic_ if they knew the whole story?" he asks, shamelessly throwing Kakashi's words back in his face. "You've known Uzuki and Shiranui-san for around a decade and you haven't told them everything about their teammate, yet you expected Sakura to trust you with everything after a few measly _months_?"

A short silence falls as they all process the teen's words, then Kakashi sits up at the same time as Shin opens his mouth, doubtless to keep going, to grab the metaphorical knife he's shoved into Kakashi's heart and _twist_.

And then-

"Aniki, that's _enough_."

Kakashi freezes.

Sometime during their argument, Sakura and Yugao remerged from the bedroom, unnoticed by the three men. Kakashi turns, neck stiff and arms heavy, yet when he looks at Sakura, he understands his reaction _._

Sakura's expression is completely blank, but her words are an order. A _general's_ order, impossible to disobey, brimming with authority and threat, and when he closes his eyes and reaches out with his chakra sense, he flinches.

Sakura's chakra is a roiling, vicious, violent mess, and all of it is pointed with nigh-surgical precision at Shin.

 _Killing Intent._ Kakashi realises with a start. Yet, despite being so meticulously controlled and restrained, it's so potent that its shockwaves _alone_ froze him in place so absolutely that a Nara would be envious.

Shin takes a careful, measured breath, and his muscles seem to visibly unlock. He hangs his head, takes another breath, and this one rattles slightly, though Kakashi is still marvelling at the teen's composure.

"My apologies." Shin murmurs, the words sounding hollow, without even a trace of sincerity. "I overstepped."

Kakashi's eyes follow Sakura as she steps over to the table and sits down again in her previous seat, reaching casually for the gyoza.

 _Yugao was wrong._ Kakashi realises with a start, thinking of everything he knows about the girl. Medical ninjutsu, Mokuton, noble summons, yet with enough all-around skill to not need any of those for an entire _year_ in ANBU and still be formidable. The ability to use Killing Intent to mimic the Shadow Possession, and the complete ruthlessness needed to use the aforementioned ability on her own _brother_.

 _She's not like Itachi at all._ Being able to switch between personalities, to go months in nigh-complete silence, only to reveal a personality so teasing and lively as if it had never experienced ROOT, or Shimura's conditioning programme. A chameleon, blending in with her surroundings, twisting her 'self' and her abilities to best fit and complement whatever situation she finds herself in. A liar so adept at lying, at hiding, she doesn't even _realise_ she is lying; to her teammates, to the kage, to the world, to herself.

 _She's in a completely different league._

"And your other brother?" Yugao asks, and she at least seems unruffled, managing to sound genuinely interested and polite and smiling encouragingly at Sakura, who appears completely ignorant to Kakashi's realisations.

"He's at a friend's, unfortunately – they've got a group project to do at the Academy, so he won't be eating with us tonight." Sakura explains, and the apologetic expression on her face is almost believable.

 _Almost._

It doesn't escape Kakashi's notice that they have both avoided using the mysterious brother's name, or giving any concrete details. Even with Shin, his name was only revealed once Sakura _decided_ to reveal it. And that –

"You can just say you don't want us to meet him." Kakashi says before he can quite stop himself, his words mild but the accusation beneath sharp enough to make Genma glance at him like he's grown a second head. It sounds a lot like what he'd said all those months ago when he'd all but ordered Sakura to speak her mind when on missions, but Sakura just blinks.

"Okay." She replies, unfazed. "We didn't want you to meet him."

 _What._

There's a sudden laugh, and it's harsh and rough around the edges as if the person is unused to laughing, and it takes Kakashi a few seconds to realise that it's coming from _Shin_. It seems the shock of Sakura's reprimand has worn off, and the teen is rearing to go for another round of verbal showdown.

"You can't all but order us – in our own home, as well, mind – to tell the truth, and then get offended when we do. That's not how the world works, Hatake-san." He chastises, and Kakashi is glad for his mask because he can feel his face heating up.

"I am not _offended_ ," he begins, but is quickly cut off.

"Why not?" Genma asks, and Kakashi realises a tad belatedly that the question is directed at the siblings instead of at him. "Why didn't you want us to meet your brother? If you don't mind explaining?"

Sakura smiles at that, and Kakashi wonders whether she's talked with her summons since coming home. Genma's oddly… _pandering_ attitude is new, and Kakashi's not sure how its being received by others. He, for one, is not a fan.

But Sakura must appreciate it, because she acquiesces and explains.

"Our otouto will be graduating next year. Outside of ANBU, you're all jounin. While you may not be jounin-sensei, you do have contact with your rank-mates. And if you knew one of your comrades would get an ex-ROOT revolutionary who's easily chunin-level despite being fresh out of the Academy, could you really stay silent about it?"

Kakashi blinks.

When that doesn't help, he looks around, and inwardly breathes a sigh of relief when he notes Yugao and Genma are equally flabbergasted.

"So… you didn't want us to meet your brother _today_ …to avoid us telling his jounin-sensei about his unique circumstances when he graduates _next year_?" Yugao asks, as if to double-check, eyebrows soaring when Sakura just nods.

"Couldn't you have just _asked_ us not to tell?" Genma demands, seemingly torn between exasperation and laughter.

Sakura sighs, raking a hand through her short hair in clear frustration. She looks off to the side, as if searching for words, the right corner of her mouth curled down in a frown. Shin steps in seamlessly to answer, the earlier tension between the siblings nowhere to be found as they cover for each other instinctively.

"What you need to understand is that the issue wasn't with your trustworthiness, but rather the situation as a whole." He says calmly, and Sakura visibly relaxes, shooting her brother a small, grateful smile. "The one thing that allowed us to keep going even in the darkest moments, the reason we decided to risk everything in order to bring Danzo down, was to grant us all relatively normal lives _after_."

He looks at them, and though Kakashi's got a good decade on the boy, his eyes remind him of Sakumo; grey and wise and tired and seeing straight through their defences.

"Our brother is _good_. He's good in a way Sakura and I aren't anymore. We've put everything on the line to give him a normal childhood, or as normal as you can get being an ex-ROOT agent with the remnants of a failed conditioning program rattling around your brain. But the point is, he's at the Academy. He's with his age-mates. He's got a chance to really _live_. Perhaps, if all goes well, by the time he graduates, you won't even be able to tell he was once one of Shimura's most 'loyal'."

Sakura jumps back in, and she meets their wide eyes unflinchingly.

"There are five people in the Village who know our brother's true identity. Two of them are in this room, another is the Hokage." An unreadable expression crosses her face then, but it morphs into a wry smile in the next second. "Understand this: I trust the three of you with my _life_. I consider us friends. But I will _always_ put my siblings first."

In that moment, Kakashi understands _exactly_ how quiet-Sakura could have a contract with _tigers_.

Her eyes shine with a fierce determination borne out of a protectiveness and love so potent Kakashi feels it like a physical ache. He wonders whether anyone had ever looked like that when they talked about _him_.

But he has to check, so he asks, adamantly ignoring Genma's sharp look.

"Always? Even before missions? Before orders?"

" _Always_ , taicho." Sakura doesn't even hesitate, just holds his gaze and dares him to say anything. "I'd abandon any mission a hundred times over if it meant saving my brothers."

Kakashi stares.

He can't help it.

This entire dinner, the two children before him, it's all set to remind him of the ghosts from his past. From the boy with his father's eyes, to the deceptively shy medic parroting Sakumo and Minato's words back at him.

All that's missing is an optimistic Uchiha who met his untimely and tragic end.

"I only have one question." Genma cuts in, before Kakashi has a chance to recover, and at this point, Kakashi is almost sure the man is doing it intentionally. "Ryūnosuke implied that their previous summoner was Kagami. The only Kagami I know of was _Uchiha_ Kagami. So, how did you get an Uchiha summoning contract?"

A tiny smile appears on Sakura's face when Genma mentions her summon by name, but by the time he's finished, it turns a little melancholy.

"In ROOT, I had _three_ brothers. The third was an Uchiha. When he became more of a liability to Danzo than a useful piece and his time was ran short, he left me the contract." She explains, and Shin shows the first expression that's neither faked nor snide, and Kakashi spitefully wonders whether they've finally found a sore spot.

"I doubt the Uchiha Clan would've stayed quiet if one of their members was just… _disappeared_." Yugao points out, and Kakashi's glad she's making sense again.

Shin's expression twists again, and Sakura's wry smile gains a sardonic edge.

"Not if it looked like a suicide."

Kakashi stills.

 _It can't be._

An Uchiha, of high enough skill to be in ROOT, whose death was written off as a suicide. Close enough in age to be a brother figure to a preteen.

 _Shisui._

But that throws into question the first thing that brought about the downfall of Itachi's status. If Danzo was responsible for Shisui's death, then Itachi really was just a _victim_ , and that opens the fantastic can of worms that is Kakashi's anxiety over what _else_ he'd judged too quickly.

"I'm sorry." Yugao offers carefully, apparently ignorant to Kakashi's inner epiphanies.

Sakura mutters a quiet 'thank you', and the conversation stalls.

"Tomorrow," Kakashi finally says, breaking the silence that had fallen over the table, "we will have a team training session, and a spar. All out. No more hiding skills. No more secrets." He shoots a glance at Shin, and, taking care to make it sound like an off-hand remark, adds. "That applies to everyone."

Sakura smiles, and there's relief and excitement in her eyes when she nods. "I'd like that." she agrees, and a weight Kakashi hadn't even realised had been on his shoulders lifts off. Then, a sheepish look crosses Sakura's face and she fidgets. "But for now, let's eat. I think I made way too much food."

Kakashi can't help himself. He snorts.

* * *

When they finally part ways two hours later, Kakashi feels well-fed, warm, and reassured. After all the metaphorical dirty laundry was aired out, the conversation moved onto more innocent, light-hearted topics, and towards the end of the night, even he could sense a feeling of kinship around his team that hadn't been present before.

While Yugao and Genma made it clear that they hold no grudge against Sakura for having kept her secrets from them, Kakashi tried hard to be neutral, even though inwardly, he'd reached a decision about three hours into the dinner.

He would not include Sakura's Mokuton in his mission report, and instead of her summons carrying them back to Konoha, he'd name his own. There were no witnesses, after all, apart from his team, who saw the tigers, so it's not like anyone will be able to call him on his bluff.

He didn't want to lose Sakura.

As hurt as he'd been by her having kept secrets from them, Shin's explanation, despite how cutting and targeted it had been, had helped.

And though the dinner left him with even more questions than he had before, deep down, Kakashi can also acknowledge that the heavy weight in his stomach is gone, replaced instead with relief.

He'll need to may more attention to his teammates, and he's curious what tomorrow's spar will reveal, and there are definitely some things he should've questioned more and some he shouldn't have believed quite so readily, but he's…content.

He thinks of Sakura's tiny smile as she waved them all out the door, thinks of Yugao's fond looks and Genma's good humour, and when he finally dares to think of the word ' _pack'_ when thinking of his team, it doesn't feel weird.

It feels _right_.

* * *

 **as always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop me a line! take care y'all and see you next chapter!**


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